[3] The high similarity (>98%) among the 16S rRNA gene of L. fabifermentans with that of other species of the genus Lactobacillus (i.e. L. plantarum) made its identification difficult and probably led to an underestimation of its true environmental diffusion.

[6] In 2013, 22 isolates belonging to L. fabifermentans were isolated from grape marcs and clearly separated from other members of the L. plantarum group by means of rep-PCR;[7] this finding suggested that this is one of the more abundant microbial species surviving during the grape marc fermentation used for the production of Grappa, a traditional Italian alcoholic beverage.

Like for other lactobacilli, the capability of this species to survive during food products fermentation was due to some interesting phenotypic characters like the ability to use a wide range of different carbohydrates.

The genome sequence of L. fabifermentans T30PCM01 (isolated from grape marc) was determined in 2014 [8] and allowed to identify a high number of genes involved in carbohydrate transport and utilization.

This was confirmed by the genome sequence of the LMG 24284T (DSM 21115T) strain isolated from cocoa (3,204,420 bp) that was also determined in 2014 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/assembly/81501).