Numerical Analysis of Phenotypic Features and Protein Gel Electropherograms of Gluconobacter Asai 1935 emend. mut. char. Asai, Iizuka, and Komagata 1964

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Abstract
Ninety-eight Gluconobacter strains of various origins were examined by numerical analysis of 177 phenotypic features and by gel electrophoresis of soluble proteins. Gluconobacter was phenotypically quite different from Acetobacter and Frateuria. An extensive phenotypic description and a minimal description of the genus Gluconobacter are given. The genus Gluconobacter contained two groups, A and B, by both techniques. Phenons A and B could be differentiated only by the requirement for nicotinic acid and by their electrophoretic patterns. Protein electrophoresis showed clearly that Gluconobacter strains are genetically stable over several decades. The strains of all five subspecies of Gluconobacter oxydans cited in the Approved Lists of Bacterial Names (Skerman et al., Int. J. Syst. Bacteriol. 30:225–420, 1980) were distributed randomly over the phenotypic and electrophoretic clusters and subclusters, and the type strains of the subspecies all fell in phenon B. We conclude that the single species Gluconobacter oxydans should not be further divided into subspecies.