Phenotypic study by numerical taxonomy of strains belonging to the genus Aeromonas.

Aims:  This study was undertaken to cluster and identify a large collection of Aeromonas strains. Methods and Results:  Numerical taxonomy was used to analyse phenotypic data obtained on 54 new isolates taken from water, fish, snails, sputum and 99 type and reference strains. Each strain was tested for 121 characters but only the data for 71 were analysed using the `SSM' and `SJ' coefficients, and the UPGMA clustering algorithm. At SJ values of ≥ 81·6% the strains clustered into 22 phenons which were identified as Aer. jandaei, Aer. hydrophila, Aer. encheleia, Aer. veronii biogroup veronii, Aer. trota, Aer. caviae, Aer. eucrenophila, Aer. ichthiosmia, Aer. sobria, Aer. allosaccharophila, Ae…