A mesophilic, obligately anaerobic, lactate-, alcohol-, carbohydrate- and amino-acid- degrading bacterium, designated strain 7WAY-8-7(T), was isolated from an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor treating high-strength organic wastewater from isomerized sugar production processes. Cells of strain 7WAY-8-7(T) were motile, curved rods (0.7-1.0x5.0-8.0 mu m). Spore formation was not observed. The strain grew optimally at 37 degrees C (range for growth was 25-40 degrees C) and pH 7.0 (pH 6.0-7.5), and could grow fermentatively on yeast extract, glucose, ribose, xylose, malate, tryptone, pyruvate, fumarate, Casamino acids, serine and cysteine. The main end-products of glucose fermentation were acetate and hydrogen. In co-culture with the hydrogenotrophic methanogen Methanospirillum hungatei DSM 864(T), strain 7WAY-8-7(T) could utilize lactate, glycerol, ethanol, 1-propanol, 1-butanol, L-glutamate, alanine, leucine, isoleucine, valine, histidine, asparagine, glutamine, arginine, lysine, threonine, 2-oxoglutarate, aspartate and methionine. A Stick land reaction was not observed with some pairs of amino acids. Yeast extract was required for growth. Nitrate, sulfate, thiosulfate, elemental sulfur, sulfite and Fe (III) were not used as terminal electron acceptors. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 61.4 mol%. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis revealed that the isolate belongs to the uncultured environmental clone clade (called 'PD-UASB-13' in the Greengenes database) in the bacterial phylum Synergistetes, showing less than 90% sequence similarity with closely related described species such as Aminivibrio pyruvatiphilus and Aminobacterium colombiense (89.7% and 88.7%, respectively). The major cellular fatty acids were iso-C-13:0 iso-C-15:0, anteiso-C-15:0, C-18:1, C-19:1, C-20:1 and C-21:1. A novel genus and species, Lactivibrio alcoholicus gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed to accommodate strain 7WAY-8-7(T) (=JCM 17151(T)=DSM 24196(T)=CGMCC 1.5159(T)).