Taxonomy of Marine Bacteria: Beneckea parahaemolytica and Beneckea alginolytica

Abstract

A collection of 169 strains, including 91 obtained from cases of gastroenteritis and 41 from localized tissue infections and infections of the eye and ear, was submitted to an extensive nutritional, physiological, and morphological characterization. The nutritional and physiological data obtained from these strains, as well as data for strains of other species of the genus Beneckea, were submitted to a numerical analysis which grouped the strains into clusters on the basis of phenotypic similarity. Strains from cases of gastroenteritis formed a group of three clusters which linked at a similarity value of 68%. These three clusters could not, however, be separated from each other by universally positive or negative traits, and on the basis of their overall phenotypic similarity were assigned to a single species, B. parahaemolytica. The majority of the strains from human, nonenteric sources segregated into two distinct clusters, one designated B. alginolytica and the other unassigned with respect to species (group C-2). B. parahaemolytica, B. alginolytica, and group C-2 could be readily distinguished from one another as well as from the remaining species of the genus Beneckea by multiple, unrelated, phenotypic traits. Activities of selected enzymes of glucose and gluconate catabolism in cell-free extracts of B. parahaemolytica, B. alginolvtica, and group C-2 suggested that these organisms utilized glucose primarily via the Embden-Meyerhof pathway and gluconate primarily via the Entner-Doudoroff pathway. Similar results were observed in the other members of the genus Beneckea.

Lateral Flagellar Antigen of Vibrio alginolyticus and Vibrio harveyi: Existence of Serovars Common to the Two Species

“…The antiserum thus obtained agglutinated the cells of V. al g i n o l y t i c u s ATCC 17749 grown on modified MOF agar medium, but not the cells grown in liquid medium. Like V. parahaemolyticus (1,4), cells of V. alginolyticus grown on agar medium possessed L-flagella, whereas cells grown in liquid medium did not, as shown in Fig. 4.…”

“…Some species of genus Vibrio have two kinds of flagella, lateral flagella (Lflagella) and polar monotrichous flagella (M-flagella) (1,4,20). Cells grown in liquid media possess only one M-flagellum on one end of each rod cell, whereas cells grown on agar media have both kinds of flagella on one cell.…”

Flagellar Morphology of Vibrio parahaemolyticus (Fujino et al) Sakazaki, Iwanami and Fukumi 19631

“…Since 84 out of 88 (95%) V. parahaemolyticus strains used in this study had peritrichous flagella in addition to a single polar flagellum when grown on solid media and Baumann et al [3] reported that the 95% of their strains of the species had peritrichous flagella, the have referred neither to the frequency of laterally flagellated strains among each Aeromonas species nor to the taxonomic position of genus Aeromonas in higher rank of classification. Buttiaux [5] regarded a strain of marine bacterium of mixed type of flagellation as a member of genus Beneckea which was defined as peritrichous rod by Campbell [6].…”

“…Although Molenda et al [26] reported the isolation of V. parahaemolyticus from patients with gastroenteritis in Maryland, they did not describe the motility and flagellation of the isolates. Baumann et al [3] reported that 125 of 132 strains (95%) of the species were peritrichous on solid media. Extending our previous work, the mode of flagellation of V. parahaemolyticus strains under various cultural conditions is presented and the significance of flagellar morphology in the taxonomy of the species is discussed.…”

Halo production by sulfatase activity of V. vulnificus and V. cholerae O1 on a new selective sodium dodecyl sulfate-containing agar medium: A screening marker in environmental surveillance

“…In 1973, Baumann et al described a group of Gram-negative, fermentative marine organisms and assigned it to group C-2 [1]. Based on the results of extensive phenotypic characterization and DNA homology experiments, Reichelt et al placed the organism in the genus Beneckea and named it Beneckea vulnifica [2].…”