Bioinformatics and microbial biodiversity: analysis of vibrios by the GenEnv system.

Sequence-based approaches to prokaryotic systematics and typing represent a modern and promising strategy in epidemiology and environmental microbiology. GenEnv, a database-driven system for bacterial typing, was developed in order to provide user friendly tools for supporting biomolecular analysis of bacteria. The family Vibrionaceae represents a heterogeneous taxon of aquatic microrganisms, harbouring a plethora of genomes currently analyzed by different molecular techniques. Under the query "Vibrio", GenEnv retrieved 256 organisms, included in a total number of 19 families. Overall, 548 sequences, comprising 16S rRNA (n=402), rpoB (n=1), gyrB (n=145) were available. In addition, GenEnv system allowed primer design, homology analysis and restriction maps, for immediate applications to the study of Vibrionaceae.