Four staphylococcal isolates from clinical and necropsy specimens from a cat, a dog, a horse and a parrot (Psittacus erithacus timneh) were found to constitute a distinct taxon. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis revealed that its closest phylogenetic relatives are Staphylococcus intermedius and Staphylococcus delphini. Growth characteristics, biochemical features and DNA-DNA hybridizations demonstrated that the strains differ from these and other known species and that they represent a single, novel Staphylococcus species for which the name Staphylococcus pseudintermedius sp. nov. is proposed. The novel species is commonly confused with S. intermedius in routine diagnostic veterinary bacteriology. Although the strains described were isolated from lesions and show several characteristics typical of pathogenic staphylococci, such as coagulase, DNase and b-haemolysin production, the pathogenic significance of the novel species remains unclear. The type strain, LMG 22219 T (=ON 86 T =CCUG 49543 T ), was isolated from lung tissue of a cat.

Three novel heterotrophic, Gram-negative, yellow-pigmented, aerobic, gliding, oxidase- and catalase-positive bacteria were isolated from algae collected in the Gulf of Peter the Great, Sea of Japan. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis revealed that the strains studied represented members of the family Flavobacteriaceae and showed 93·5–93·8 % similarity with their closest relative, Psychroserpens burtonensis. The DNA G+C content of the strains was 34–37 mol%. The major respiratory quinone was MK-6. The predominant fatty acids were iso-C15 : 0, anteiso-C15 : 0, iso-C15 : 1, iso-C16 : 0-3OH and iso-C17 : 0-3OH. On the basis of their phenotypic, chemotaxonomic, genotypic and phylogenetic characteristics, the newly described bacteria have been assigned to the new genus Winogradskyella gen. nov., as Winogradskyella thalassocola sp. nov. (type strain, KMM 3907T=KCTC 12221T=LMG 22492T=DSM 15363T), Winogradskyella epiphytica sp. nov. (type strain, KMM 3906T=KCTC 12220T=LMG 22491T=CCUG 47091T) and Winogradskyella eximia sp. nov. (type strain, KMM 3944T (=KCTC 12219T=LMG 22474T).

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Seven Gram-negative strains, isolated in 1990 from a 10 6 -fold dilution series of seawater from Resurrection Bay, a deep fjord of the Gulf of Alaska, were identified in a polyphasic taxonomic study. Analysis of 16S rDNA sequences and DNA-homology studies confirmed the phylogenetic position of all strains in the genus Sphingomonas and further indicated that all of the strains constitute a single homogeneous genomic species, distinct from all validly described Sphingomonas species. The ability to differentiate the species, both phenotypically and chemotaxonomically, from its nearest neighbours justifies the proposal of a new species name, Sphingomonas alaskensis sp. nov., for this taxon. Strain LMG 18877 T (l RB2256 T l DSM 13593 T ) was selected as the type strain.Keywords : Sphingomonas alaskensis sp. nov., identification, polyphasic taxonomy, marine ultramicrobacterium INTRODUCTIONMicrobiologists have been intrigued by the phenomenon of ' unculturability ' for over half a century, especially with respect to bacteria in the open ocean (MacLeod, 1985). This notion has now virtually reached the status of a dogma but is still based primarily on the common observation that often numerically dominant marine bacteria cannot be grown on agar surfaces (Austin, 1988 ;Jannasch & Jones, 1959 ;Kogure et al., 1979Kogure et al., , 1980Poindexter & Leadbetter, 1986 ;Roszak & Colwell, 1987 ; Schut et al., 1997a, b ; Van Es & MeyerReil, 1982). These studies all point in the same direction and indicate that by using agar-plate counts and isolation procedures usually less than 0n1 % of the total community that is observed by direct microscopy can be cultured. As a logical consequence of this situation, most of our knowledge on the physiological properties of marine bacteria is based on those species that are Abbreviations : FAS, filtered-autoclaved seawater ; FAMEs, fatty acid methyl esters.The EMBL accession numbers for the sequences determined in this work are AF145752 (1280 bp), AF145753 (1416 bp) and AF145754 (1428 bp), respectively.readily obtained in culture but which mostly belong to a minority of the total community. Culture-independent molecular techniques are now widely used to obtain a thorough understanding of the identity and nature of the bacteria comprising marine heterotrophic communities, because of their apparent unculturability. This approach has indeed indicated the existence of numerous possibly ' new ' and unusual uncultured bacteria (Amann et al., 1995 ;Britschgi & Giovannoni, 1991 ;Fuhrman et al., 1992Fuhrman et al., , 1993Giovannoni et al., 1990Giovannoni et al., , 1995Ho$ fle & Brettar, 1996 ;Mullins et al., 1995 ;Schmidt et al., 1991). The developments in the use of molecular probes for the detection of natural bacterial populations and for the analysis of genetic diversity within communities have revolutionized our approach in microbial ecology so much that they may create the impression that isolation and cultivation of naturally occurring bacterial strains might soon cease to be required. However, th...

The taxonomic positions of five enteroadherent bacterial pig isolates, showing phenotypic characteristics most similar to those of Enterococcus durans and Enterococcus hirae, were investigated in a polyphasic study that included 16S rDNA sequence analysis, DNA-DNA hybridizations, DNA base-ratio determinations, whole-cell protein fingerprinting, D11344-primed PCR typing and an extensive examination of phenotypic properties. The results demonstrated that the organisms represent a new species in the Enterococcus faecium species group, for which the name Enterococcus villorum sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is LMG 12287 T (l CCM 4887 T ).