Abstract
MC Macian, W Ludwig, KH Schleifer, MJ Pujalte and E Garay
Departamento de Microbiologia y Ecologia, Facultad de Biologia, Universitat de Valencia, Campus de Burjassot, 46100 Valencia, Spain
It is proposed that the new Vibrio species Vibrio agarivorans accommodates two agarolytic, halophilic, fermentative bacterial strains isolated from Mediterranean sea water. The cells were Gram-negative, oxidase-positive, polarly flagellated bacilli that fermented glucose without gas production and that produced no decarboxylases. They used a wide range of compounds as sole carbon and energy sources. The DNA G+C content was 44.8 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis based on complete 16S and 23S rDNA sequences revealed that the strains belong to the gamma-Proteobacteria, and are specifically related to Vibrio species. Their nearest relatives were species of the Vibrio fischeri group, sharing 16S rDNA sequence similarities below 97% with the agarolytic strains. The type strain is 289(T) (=CECT 5085(T)=DSM 13756(T)).