Vibrio agarivorans sp. nov., a novel agarolytic marine bacterium.

It is proposed that the new Vibrio species Vibrio agarivorans accommodates two agarolytic, halophilic, fermentative bacterial strains isolated from Mediterranean sea water. The cells were gram-negative, oxidase-positive, polarly flagellated bacilli that fermented glucose without gas production and that produced no decarboxylases. They used a wide range of compounds as sole carbon and energy sources. The DNA G+C content was 44.8 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis based on complete 16S and 23S rDNA sequences revealed that the strains belong to the gamma-Proteobacteria, and are specifically related to Vibrio species. Their nearest relatives were species of the Vibrio fischeri group, sharing 16S rDNA sequence similarities below 97% with the agarolytic strains. The type strain is 289T (= CECT 5085T = DSM 13756T).