TAXONOMIC EVIDENCE THAT VIBRIO-CARCHARIAE GRIMES ET-AL. 1985 IS A JUNIOR SYNONYM OF VIBRIO-HARVEYI (JOHNSON AND SHUNK 1936) BAUMANN ET-AL, 1981

A collection of 94 Vibrio isolates closely related to Vibrio harveyi, together with named reference and type strains, were investigated for phenotypic and genotypic properties. Using amplified fragment length p olymorphism (AFLP), nine clusters were recognized. The largest cluster (n = 36), considered to be the bona fide V. harveyi group, contained the type strains of V. harveyi and Vibrio carchariae and most of the s trains isolated from fish. The type strains of all other species, incl uding Vibrio alginolyticus, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Vibrio campbellii and Vibrio natriegens, clustered outside this group. By ribotyping, V . harveyi and V. carchariae patterns were very similar, insofar as the y shared most bands. The V. campbellii type strain had several bands i n common with the type strains of both ii. harveyi and V. carchariae, whereas the other species were clearly distinct from these three speci es. DNA-DNA hybridization experiments showed 88% DNA binding between t he type strains of V. harveyi and V. carchariae, whereas the DNA bindi ng between V. harveyi and V. campbellii was 40%. Although the delineat ion of the species V. harveyi is still uncertain, the authors propose, on the basis of a number of tests, to delineate a core of V. harveyi strains which contained the type strains of both V. harveyi and V. car chariae. It is concluded that V. carchariae is the junior synonym of V . harveyi.