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Inferring the Evolutionary History of Vibrios by Means of Multilocus Sequence Analysis ^,

Laboratory of Microbiology, Faculty of Fisheries, Hokkaido University, 3-1-1 Minato-cho, Hakodate 041-8611, Japan,¹ Ocean Research Institute, University of Tokyo, 1-15 Minamindai, Nakano-ku, Tokyo 164-8639, Japan,² Department of Genetics, Institute of Biology, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Ilha do Fundão, Caixa Postal 68011, CEP 21944-970, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil³

Received 1 May 2007/ Accepted 9 August 2007

We performed the first broad study aiming at the reconstruction of the evolutionary history of vibrios by means of multilocus sequence analysis of nine genes. Overall, 14 distinct clades were recognized using the SplitsTree decomposition method. Some of these clades may correspond to families, e.g., the clades Salinivibrio and Photobacteria, while other clades, e.g., Splendidus and Harveyi, correspond to genera. The common ancestor of all vibrios was estimated to have been present 600 million years ago. We can define species of vibrios as groups of strains that share >95% gene sequence similarity and >99.4% amino acid identity based on the eight protein-coding housekeeping genes. The gene sequence data were used to refine the standard online electronic taxonomic scheme for vibrios (http://www.taxvibrio.lncc.br).

Published ahead of print on 17 August 2007.

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