Phylogenetic position of Gluconobacter species as a coherent cluster separated from all Acetobacter species on the basis of 16S ribosomal RNA sequences.

The 16S rRNA sequences from the Gluconobacter species G. asaii, G. cerinus and G. frateurii were determined and compared with homologous sequences from published databases and sequences of G. oxydans and Acetobacter species previously described [Sievers, M., Ludwig, W. and Teuber, M. (1994) System. Appl. Microbiol. 17, 189-196]. The Gluconobacter species have unique 16S rRNA sequences and exhibit sequence similarity values of 97.4 to 99.1%, corresponding to 36 to 14 base differences. The phylogenetic tree inferring methods (distance matrix, maximum parsimony and maximum likelihood) show that the species of Gluconobacter form a coherent, closely related cluster. Based on the distance matrix method including Rhodopila globiformis as an outgroup reference organism, Gluconobacter is well separated from Acetobacter.