Correlation of taxonomic criteria for a collection of marine bacteria.

Numerical taxonomy was done on 208 strains of marine bacteria. The collection was segregated into eight groups, seven of which contained Vibrio sp. Nucleic acid base ratio studies on a typical Vibrio sp. from each group and other genera were done. The phenotypically different Vibrio sp. had a narrow range of base ratios. The other genera had base ratios more similar to the base ratios reported for their genus than to each other as marine bacteria. The taxonomic groups are compared with generic classification and the strains' sources of isolations.