PHYLOGENETIC POSITION OF GLUCONOBACTER SPECIES AS A COHERENT CLUSTER SEPARATED FROM ALL ACETOBACTER SPECIES ON THE BASIS OF 16S RIBOSOMAL-RNA SEQUENCES

The 16S rRNA sequences from the Gluconobacter species G. asaii, G. cer inus and G. frateurii were determined and compared with homologous seq uences from published databases and sequences of G. oxydans and Acetob acter species previously described [Sievers, M., Ludwig, W, and Teuber , M. (1994) System. Appl. Microbiol. 17, 189-196]. The Gluconobacter s pecies have unique 16S rRNA sequences and exhibit sequence similarity values of 97.4 to 99.1%, corresponding to 36 to 14 base differences. T he phylogenetic tree inferring methods (distance matrix, maximum parsi mony and maximum likelihood) show that the species of Gluconobacter fo rm a coherent, closely related cluster. Based on the distance matrix m ethod including Rhodopila globiformis as an outgroup reference organis m, Gluconobacter is well separated from Acetobacter.