Vibrio hispanicus sp. nov., isolated from Artemia sp. and sea water in Spain.

Three Gram-negative, small, motile, rod-shaped bacteria were isolated from Artemia sp. and sea water in Barcelona, Spain, during 1990 and 1991. They were fermentative, oxidase-positive, sensitive to vibriostatic agent O/129, arginine dihydrolase-positive, lysine and ornithine decarboxylase-negative and grew in the absence of NaCl. They differed from phenotypically related species by their ability to grow at 4 degrees C and utilize L-rhamnose. Cloning of the 16S rRNA gene of the type strain produced two different 16S rRNA gene sequences, which differed by 15 bases (0.99%); comparison of these sequences with those deposited in GenBank showed close relationships with Vibrio proteolyticus (97.6% similarity), Vibrio diazotrophicus (97.9%), Vibrio campbellii (96.8%) and Vibrio alginolyticus (96.8%), among others. DNA-DNA hybridization levels with the closest phylogenetically related Vibrio species were <26.4%. Sufficient evidence is provided to support the identity of the three strains analysed as members of a novel species of the genus Vibrio, for which the name Vibrio hispanicus sp. nov. is proposed, with the type strain LMG 13240T (=CAIM 525T=VIB 213T).