Soil bacteria: principal component analysis of physiological descriptions of some named cultures of Agrobacterium, Arthrobacter, and Rhizobium

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Abstract
A principal component (PC) analysis was used to examine binary descriptive data for 38 cultures of Arthrobacter, 16 of Agrobacterium, and 27 of Rhizobium. The descriptions were based on the responses of the cultures to 65 tests concerned with the following: nutritional requirements; use of acetate, succinate, citrate, aldoses, adonitols, ketoses, disaccharides, trisaccharides, aromatic compounds, and amino acids; hydrolysis of starch and protein; and reduction of nitrate. No data for morphological, for symbiotic characteristics, or for pathogenicity were included. The PC analysis showed that the rhizobia, the agrobacteria, and the arthrobacters were separable in terms of the tests used, and that the rhizobia and agrobacteria groups were most alike. The PC analysis indicated important characteristics which distinguished these three groups from each other. Such characteristics included the following: use of arabinose, dulcitol, adonitol, sorbose, inulin, aromatic compounds, glycine, and phenylalanine as carbon and energy sources; use of glucose as carbon and energy source under anaerobic conditions; growth in the presence of 10% NaCl; growth in medium at pH 4.5 or 9.0; growth at 4C; and hydrolysis of starch. Bacteriological characteristics, DNA guanine–cytosine contents, and clustering of the arthrobacter cultures are discussed.

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