Phylogenetic relationship and phenotypic comparison of Psychrobacter species isolated from polar oceans

To investigate the phylogenetic relationship and biogeography of bacterioplankton in polar oceans, four Psychrobacter strains, BSw10170, BSw20352, BSw20370, and BSw20461, isolated from seawater of the Bering Sea, the Chukchi Sea, and the Prydz Bay, were characterized by 16S rDNA sequencing and physiological and biochemical testing. Results demonstrated that close relationships existed between the Arctic and Antarctic strains with sequence similarities higher than 97%. These four Psychrobacter strains not only showed almost identical phenotypic characteristics among them, but also shared a lot of similarities with those related Psychrobacter species, indicating that psychrotolerance and halotolerance of Psychrobacter strains may be among the reasons for their bipolar, even global distribution in marine environments at the genus level.