PSEUDOALTEROMONAS ANTARCTICA SP-NOV, ISOLATED FROM AN ANTARCTIC COASTAL ENVIRONMENT

The taxonomic characteristics of five bacterial strains which were iso lated from Antarctic coastal marine environments were studied, These b acteria were psychrotrophic, aerobic, and gram negative with polar fla gella, The G+C contents of the DNAs of these strains were 41 to 42 mol %, The Antarctic strains were phenotypically distinct from the previou sly described Pseudoalteromonas type species, DNA-DNA hybridization ex periments revealed that the new strains were closely related to each o ther but clearly different from Pseudoalteromonas haloplanktis and Pse udoalteromonas atlantica, which were the most phenotypically similar o rganisms, None of the bacterial isolates was capable of using DL-malat e, D-sorbitol, or m-hydroxybenzoate, and all were capable of gelatin h ydrolysis, Strains NF2, NF3(T) (T = type strain), NF13, NF14, and EN10 had an Na+ requirement but required only 17 mM Na+, Phenotypic, DNA G +C content, DNA-DNA hybridization, 16S rRNA analysis, fatty acid compo sition, and protein profile data confirmed the identification of the A ntarctic strains as members of a Pseudoalteromonas sp, The name Pseudo alteromonas antarctica sp, nov. is proposed for these organisms.