Alteromonas rubra sp. nov., a New Marine Antibiotic-Producing Bacterium

Abstract

Three strains of marine bacteria that produce a polyanionic antibiotic substance and a red pigment similar to prodigiosin have been investigated from morphological, physiological, and biochemical standpoints. Their phenotypic characters, together with the low guanine plus cytosine contents of their deoxyribonucleic acids, place these strains in the genus Alteromonas Baumann et al. The main features of these strains are sufficiently consistent and different from those of the alteromonads previously described to justify placing them in a new species, for which the name Alteromonas rubra is proposed. The type strain is strain no. 18 (=NCMB 1890).