Description of Acinetobacter venetianus ex Di Cello et al. 1997 sp. nov.

The name 'Acinetobacter venetianus' has been used previously to designate three marine hydrocarbon-degrading Acinetobacter strains, of which strain RAG-1 (=ATCC 31012) has industrial applications for the production of the bioemulsifier emulsan. However, to date, the name of this taxon has not been validly published. In this study, five strains were examined to corroborate the delineation of this taxon by means of phenotypic characterization, DNA-DNA hybridization, selective restriction fragment amplification (AFLP), amplified rDNA restriction analysis (ARDRA), rpoB gene sequence analysis and tRNA intergenic spacer length polymorphism analysis (tDNA-PCR) and to emend the description of 'Acinetobacter venetianus' (ex Di Cello et al. 1997). AFLP analysis showed that the five strains formed a tight cluster at 56.8+/-5.0 % genomic relatedness that was separated from strains of other haemolytic species of the genus Acinetobacter and from the type and reference strains of other Acinetobacter species at <or=27 % relatedness, indicating the distinctiveness of the novel strains. The strains were haemolytic and able to grow on citrate (Simmons), l-histidine and malonate. The strains did not oxidize d-glucose or utilize dl-lactate or l-aspartate. The G+C contents of strains RAG-1 and of VE-C3 were 43.9 % and 43.6 mol%, respectively. The novel strains could be recognized by a characteristic ARDRA pattern (CfoI 1, AluI 3, MboI 2, RsaI 2, MspI 3). The consensus tDNA-PCR pattern for the five strains consisted of amplified fragments of 87.9, 100.2, 134.6 and 248.5 bp and was indistinguishable from that of strains of Acinetobacter genomic species 14BJ. The five strains represent a novel species for which the name Acinetobacter venetianus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is RAG-1(T) (=ATCC 31012(T)=CCUG 45561(T)=LMG 19082(T)=LUH 3904(T)=NIPH 1925(T)).