Taxonomic evidence that Vibrio carchariae Grimes et al. 1985 is a junior synonym of Vibrio harveyi (Johnson and Shunk 1936) Baumann et al. 1981

A collection of 94 Vibrio isolates closely related to Vibrio harveyi, together with named reference and type strains, were investigated for phenotypic and genotypic properties. Using amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP), nine clusters were recognized. The largest cluster (n = 36), considered to be the bona fide V. harveyi group, contained the type strains of V. harveyi and Vibrio carchariae and most of the strains isolated from fish. The type strains of all other species, including Vibrio alginolyticus, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Vibrio campbellii and Vibrio natriegens, clustered outside this group. By ribotyping, V. harveyi and V. carchariae patterns were very similar, insofar as they shared most bands. The V. campbellii type strain had several bands in common with the type strains of both V. harveyi and V. carchariae, whereas the other species were clearly distinct from these three species. DNA-DNA hybridization experiments showed 88% DNA binding between the type strains of V. harveyi and V. carchariae, whereas the DNA binding between V. harveyi and V. campbellii was 40%. Although the delineation of the species V. harveyi is still uncertain, the authors propose, on the basis of a number of tests, to delineate a core of V. harveyi strains which contained the type strains of both V. harveyi and V. carchariae. It is concluded that V. carchariae is the junior synonym of V. harveyi.