| One hundred and forty four Gram-negative bacteria, indigenous to the maritime Antarctic environment, together with six reference strains, were examined for ninety four unit characters, including morphology, production of exoenzymes, growth temperature characteristics and ability to utilize various organic carbon sources. The resulting data were analysed using the Ssm and Sj similarity coefficients with the UPGMA algorithm. At a 70% level of similary, 97% of the isolates were included in ten clusters. 50% of the isolates were identified as belonging to the genera Aeromonas/Vibrio ; 22 %, Alcaligenes ; 2%, Pseudomonas ; and 2% Flavobacterium. The remainder could not easily be identifed with bacteria previously described in the Eighth edition of Bergey's... |
