NUMERICAL TAXONOMY OF MODERATELY HALOPHILIC GRAM-NEGATIVE RODS ISOLATED FROM THE SALAR-DE-ATACAMA, CHILE

A total of 161 moderately halophilic Gram-negative rods isolated from The Salar de Atacama, Northern Chile, were examined for 119 phenotypic characters including morphological, physiological, biochemical, nutritional and antimicrobial susceptibility tests. The results together with those from reference strains, were subjected to numerical analysis, using both, the Simple Matching (S(SM)) and Jaccard (S(J)) coefficients and clustered by the unweighted pair group method of association (UPGMA). Using the S(SM) coefficient and UPGMA clustering, five phenons were obtained at a 70% similarity level. Representative strains from each phenon were chosen to determine DNA base composition and cellular morphology by electron microscopy. Strains in phenon A were assigned to the genus Vibrio. Strains in the other four phenons could not be assigned to any recognised taxon but their similarities to the genera Acinetobacter (phenon B), Marinomonas (phenon C) and Alteromonas (phenons D and E) are discussed.