Chemotaxonomic Classification of Marine Bacteria on the Basis of Fatty Acid Compositions

The cellular fatty acids of 47 marine bacteria representing the genus Alteromonas, Arthrobacter, Bacillus, Micrococcus, Pseudomonas, Shewanella, Staphylococcus and Stenotrophomonas were determined by a gasliquid chromatographic analysis. Sixty-eight different fatty acids with 10 to 20 carbon atoms were detected in marine bacteria. Of the eight genus examined, 14:0, 16:0 and i17:0 were detected in all, while i14:0, a15:0, i16:0, and 15:0 were found in most of all. There were significant differences in the fatty acid patterns between Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria. Bacteria of Gram positive genus showed relatively high contents of the branched type fatty acids, while the major fatty acids in Gram negative were unsaturated and straight forms. Phylogenetic relationships between marine bacteria defined by the cellular fatty acid patterns represented obvious differences between Gram positive and Gram negative genera, even in respective genus. Therefore, the bacterial classification and identification can be accomplished more easily and rapidly based on the cellular fatty acid profiles than the conventional methods.