Two New Species of Alteromonas: Alteromonas espejiana and Alteromonas undina

A total of 32 amino-acid-requiring, gram-negative, polarly flagellated, marine, rod-shaped bacteria were submitted to an extensive phenotypic characterization. Numerical analysis of the data grouped the strains into three clusters, one of which was identified as Alteromonas haloplanktis. The strains in the remaining clusters had properties characteristic of the genus Alteromonas and were phenotypically distinct from each other as well as from the previously characterized species of this genus. One cluster was designated Alteromonas espejiana sp. nov. (type strain, 261 [= ATCC 29659]), and the other was designated Alteromonas undina sp. nov. (type strain, 272 [= ATCC 29660]).