Evaluation of the use of multilocus sequence analysis (MLSA) to resolve taxonomic conflicts within the genus Marichromatium

Four species of marine purple sulfur bacteria of the genus Marichromatium have been validly described. A recent re-analysis of the 16S rRNA-based similarity and genomic DNA–DNA hybridizations (DDH) of the type strains [33] suggested that some of them are so closely related that they can be considered heterotypic synonyms. Here, we report on the evaluation of the multilocus sequence analysis approach (MLSA) for nine Marichromatium strains in order to resolve their intrageneric genealogical relationships. MLSA was based on six protein-coding genes (gyrB, recA, fusA, dnaK, pufM, and soxB), and the results were comparable to DDH. The phylogenetic tree constructed with the concatenated sequences, which also included the 16S rRNA gene and the internal transcriber spacer ITS region (4331 bp), separated the nine strains in four lineages that reflected the four Marichromatium species. The reconstructed phylogenetic tree based on concatenation of six protein-coding genes was also highly congruent with the tree topology based on the 16S rRNA gene.