Pantoea coffeiphila sp. nov., cause of the 'potato taste' of Arabica coffee from the African Great Lakes region.

Six isolates recovered from coffee seeds giving off a potato-like flavour were studied. Gene sequencing (rrs and rpoB) showed they belong to the genus Pantoea. By DNA-DNA hybridization, the isolates constituted a genomic species with less than 17% relatedness to 96 strains representing enterobacterial species. Multilocus sequence analysis (gyrB, rpoB, atpD and infB genes) showed the isolates to represent a discrete species of the genus Pantoea. Nutritional versatility of the novel species was poor. The novel species is proposed as Pantoea coffeiphila sp.nov. and its type strain is Ca04(T) ( =CIP 110718(T) =DSM 28482(T)).