Taxonomy of Antarctic Flavobacterium species: description of Flavobacterium gillisiae sp nov., Flavobacterium tegetincola sp nov and Flavobacterium xanthum sp nov., nom. rev. and reclassification of [Flavobacterium] salegensas Salegentibacter salegens gen. nov., comb. nov.

16S rRNA phylogenetic analysis of a number of yellow- and orange-pigmented strains isolated from a variety of Antarctic habitats including sea ice, la kewater and cyanobacterial mats indicated a close relationship to the genus Flavobacterium but distinct from known Flavobacterium species. Phenotypic properties, DNA G+C content and whole-cell fatty acid profiles of the Antar ctic strains were consistent with those of the genus Flavobacterium, DNA-DN A hybridization analysis indicated the presence of two distinct and novel g enospecies each isolated from a different Antarctic habitat. From polyphasi c taxonomic data it is proposed that the two groups represent new species w ith the following proposed names: Flavobacterium gillisiae (ACAM 601(T)) an d Flavobacterium tegetincola (ACAM 602(T)). In addition polyphasic analysis of the species '[Cytophaga] xantha' (Inoue and Komagata 1976), isolated fr om Antarctic mud, indicated it was a distinct member of the genus Flavobact erium and was thus revived as Flavobacterium xanthum. Phylogenetic and fatt y acid analyses also indicate that the species [Flavobacterium] salegens (D obson et al, 1993), from Organic Lake, Antarctica, is misclassified at the genus level. It is proposed that this species belongs to a new genus, Saleg entibacter salegens gen. nov., comb. nov.