title: Numerical taxonomy of fluorescent Pseudomonas associated with tomato roots.
abstract: The phenetic taxonomy of 110 fluorescent bacterial strains, isolated from the roots of tomatoes and other plants was numerically studied through 97 features including 69 assimilation tests. Thirty-two reference strains of various Pseudomonas spp. were additionally included. The strains clustered into 16 clusters at the 74% similarity level when using Jaccard similarity coefficients. Almost all field strains belonged to the P. fluorescens/P. putida-complex while none clustered with P. syringae and allied bacteria. The biovar II branch, as well as the newly described biovar VI of P. fluorescens, made up 55% and 20% respectively, of the field strains; two % were allocated to P. fluorescens biovar I and three % to biovar IV. Eleven % of the root associated strains were designated P. putida; six strains were biovar A, three strains biovar B while four strains could not be referred to any known biovar. The continuum within the P. fluorescens/P. putida-complex as well as the taxonomic status of the six biovars of P. fluorescens and the three biovars of P. putida are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Microbiology, University of Lund, Sweden.
authors.forename: I M
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Stenström
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zakaria
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ternström
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Molin
mesh_terms: D015169:Colony Count, Microbial; D003352:Corynebacterium / Q000145:classification; D005453:Fluorescence; D010944:Plants / Q000382:microbiology*; D011549:Pseudomonas / Q000145:classification*; D011551:Pseudomonas fluorescens / Q000145:classification