title: Deoxyribonucleic acid reassociation in the classification of flavobacteria.
abstract: DNA-DNA reassociation studies showed that Flavobacterium emningosepticum strains had a genetic relatedness of 91 to 100% with inter-strain duplexes having high thermal stabilities. The only exception, strain NCTC10016, had an average relatedness of only 43% to other strains of F. meningosepticum. The apparent divergence in DNA base sequence of this strain was reflected in the structural differences of some enzymes. There was a gradation of DNA relatedness among the Flavobacterium group II-b strains, but three strains were sufficiently related to constitute a species. Low levels of genetic relatedness were confirmed between F. meningosepticum and strains of Flavobacterium group II-b, group II-f, F. aquatile, F. breve, F. heparinum, F. pectinovorum, F. odoratum and Moraxella saccharolytica. All strains had base compositions in the range 32 to 46% guanine plus cytosine. The genome sizes of representative strains of F. meningosepticum and Flavobacterium group II-b were 2-50 X 10(9) to 3-52 X 10(9) daltons. The taxonomic implications of these findings are discussed.
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D003596:Cytosine / Q000032:analysis; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000032:analysis*; D005417:Flavobacterium / Q000032:analysis / Q000145:classification*; D006147:Guanine / Q000032:analysis; D008970:Molecular Weight; D009693:Nucleic Acid Hybridization
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D006147:Guanine; D003596:Cytosine