A taxonomic study of some coryneform bacteria.

Abstract

Summary: Numerical analysis has been carried out on 110 features of 158 named and unnamed coryneform bacteria. At the 30 % S-level, four phena of unequal size were formed, the largest of which (phenon II) was divided into two subphena at the 45 % S-level representing the genera Arthrobacter and Nocardia. Phenon III was divided into two subphena at the 45 % S-level (III A and IIIB). Subphenon IIIA was made up largely of Gram-positive strains received as Flavobacterium. Subphenon IIIB contained a variety of strains including a group of cellulomonas-like organisms. Phenon IV was divided into two subphena at the 35 % S-level representing the animal-pathogenic corynebacteria and Microbacterium flavum respectively. Phenon V contained six strains of which five were plant pathogenic corynebacteria. DNA base composition determinations were carried out on representative strains and the values obtained generally correlated well with the numerical groupings. Considerable reorganization of most coryneform genera was considered necessary and suggestions for the reclassification of species and of particular strains have been made.