Numerical Taxonomy of Phylloplane Bacteria Isolated from Lolium perenne

Open Access
Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The mean base compositions of DNA from 27 strains of Pseudomonas putrefaciens, P. rubescens and P. piscicida ranged from 43.4 to 53.2 mol % GC with genome sizes from 3.04 x 109 to 4.23 x 109 daltons. On the basis of in vitro DNA-DNA binding, estimated spectrophotometrically from initial renaturation rates, P. putrefaciens strains were heterogeneous in the extent to which they shared similar nucleotide sequences, and were divided into four DNA homology groups. The DNA characteristics of strains in these groups correlated with several biochemical characteristics that facilitated identification of clinical isolates of P. putrefaciens. The two species P. putrefaciens and P. rubescens appear to be synonymous and none of the four groups of P. putrefaciens was related in DNA sequences to P. piscicida. Pseudomonas putrefaciens should therefore be retained as a single species and characteristics for identifying the various groups within the species are listed.