Based on CFA content the majority of strains showed a high degree of homology with the type strain of Lactobacillus sake (DSM 20017) (cluster C). Since all but 1 of these strains were either typical Lactobacillus sake or atypical Lactobacillus sake/curvatus strains, it is suggested that all strains in this cluster are Lactobacillus sake strains despite phenotypic differences (van Holy et al., 1991) between them. The separate Lactobacilhs curuatus cluster (3B) containing most typicalLactobucilhs curvatus strains confirmed this.