Adansonian Analysis and Deoxyribonucleic Acid Base Composition of Some Gram-negative Bacteria.

Colwell, R. R. (Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.), and M. Mandel. Adansonian analysis and deoxyribonucleic acid base composition of some gram-negative bacteria. J. Bacteriol. 87:1412-1422. 1964.-The deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) base compositions and S values for a minimum of 134 coded properties were determined for representative cultures of the genera Pseudomonas, Xanthomonas, Aeromonas, Vibrio, Aerobacter, Escherichia, Alcaligenes, and Flavobacterium. Those cultures having a high degree of similarity by the criterion of numerical taxonomy were found to have similar DNA base compositions. The relative affinities of clusters of cultures suggest taxonomic relations. Eleven species of Xanthomonas might be a single species, and V. metschnikovii was shown to be more closely related to enteric bacteria than to other vibrios which, in turn, were found to be like pseudomonads. Aeromonas was found to be intermediate in similarity to enterics and pseudomonads and divisible into at least two, but possibly three, species. F. aquatile was unlike any of the other organisms studied, and its DNA also differed greatly in composition from other representatives of the genus.