Abstract
Three strains were isolated from cultured aquatic organisms. They were Gram-negative, oxidase-positive, motile, fermentative, arginine dihydrolase-positive, lysine and ornithine decarboxylase-negative and sensitive to vibriostatic agent O/129. These strains differ from other related Vibrio species by several phenotypic features, which include acetoin and indole production and utilization of amygdalin and D-mannitol. Comparison of 16S rDNA sequences showed a close relationship to the recently described species Vibrio kanaloae (96·6 %) and Vibrio pomeroyi (96·4 %) and to Vibrio furnissii (96·6 %), but DNADNA hybridization experiments showed that the three isolates form a tight novel species with 30 % DNADNA similarity to its closest phylogenetic neighbours. Vibrio pacinii sp. nov. is proposed, with LMG 19999T (=CAIM 530T=STD3-1057T; DNA G+C content, 44·9 mol%) as the type strain.