Me. Frischer et al., THE NATURALLY TRANSFORMABLE MARINE BACTERIUM WJT-1C FORMALLY IDENTIFIED AS VIBRIO IS A PSEUDOMONAD, Current microbiology, 33(5), 1996, pp. 287-291
A marine bacterial isolate, previously identified as Vibrio WJT-1C (AT
CC 55351) and used as a model for investigating the process of natural
transformation in the marine environment, has been further examined t
o determine its taxonomic identity. API 20E test strips, phenotypic te
sting, and flagellar staining had previously assigned the strain to th
e genus Vibrio, most closely related to V. campbelli. 16S rRNA analysi
s indicated that WJT-1C was in the Pseudomonas subgroup of the gamma p
roteobacteria. Bacteriophage typing and natural transformation with ch
romosomal DNA indicated that it was distinct from previously described
marine transforming pseudomonads including Pseudomonas stutzeri strai
n JM300. The importance and abundance of the Pseudomonas subgroup of t
he gamma proteobacteria in the environment suggest that these marine s
trains are well suited as model organisms for describing the process a
nd importance of natural transformation in nature.