COMPARISON OF RIBOTYPING ANALYSIS AND NUMERICAL TAXONOMY STUDIES OF PSEUDOMONAS-PUTIDA BIOVAR A

Numerical phenotypic analysis, using the unweighted pair group average linkage method and Dice similarity coefficient, was performed on 39 strains of clinical origin belonging or related to Pseudomonas putida biovar A and 19 collection strains belonging to the fluorescent members of Pseudomonas rRNA group I (Palleroni, 1984). Five main phenotypic clusters (I to V) were obtained. Phenotypic cluster II (37 strains) was identified as Pseudomonas putida biovar A and it could be subdivided into 4 phenotypic subclusters (IIa to IId). The 37 strains of phenotypic cluster II were then characterized by ribosomal ribonucleic acid (rRNA) gene restriction patterns, after digestion of whole-cell DNA by Pvu II. A pattern of hybridized fragments was obtained from each DNA studied. Numerical analysis was then performed and seven ribotypic clusters (A to G) were described in phenotypic cluster II. We noted the total correlation between phenotypic subclusters IIa and IId and ribotypic clusters A and B respectively. Phenotypic subclusters IIb and IIc could be divided into 3 (E, F and G) and 2 (C and D) ribotypic clusters respectively.