The genus of the Acetobacter is industrially important for the
production of vinegar and beverages, due to their ability to oxidize
different kind of sugars and alcohols. Current taxonomy in the
Acetobacter genus comprises of 22 species, and these are phylogenetically
divided into two groups (Acetobacter aceti and Acetobacter
pasteurianus group) [1]. The Acetobacter strains have been considered
as the spoilage bacteria, such as acetification, ropiness,
turbidity, off-flavors and discoloration in beer, and rot in apples,
pears and pink disease in pineapples [2,3]. Comparative analysis of
the 16S rRNA gene sequence is a commonly used molecular method
for bacterial taxonomy and identification [4]. Strains that generally
show 97% sequence similarity in the 16S rRNA genes are considered
to be the same species [5]. Unfortunately, high degrees of
similarity (reaching 95.7e99.8% and 97.0e99.9%) have been
observed for the 16S rRNA gene sequences among the A. aceti and
A. pasteurianus group. The tuf gene sequences have been widely
used as a putative species DNA marker for phylogenetic analysis in
a variety of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) [6,7], and Enterobacterial
species [8]. The tuf gene has been used as the target for detection
and identification of several species of bacteria based on the PCR
assay [9e12]. Therefore, we analyzed partial tuf gene sequences