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Summary: A collection of 283 nocardioform bacteria was studied by means of 241 tests which included many biochemical, physiological and nutritional characters. The results were subjected to computer analysis in which two coefficients of association and two cluster-analysis techniques were used. Single linkage and average linkage cluster analysis gave almost identical results, but with the simple matching coefficient a few strains were grouped together on the basis of shared negative correlations. With the matching coefficient 15 clusters were formed whereas with the similarity coefficient there were 18. In each analysis the seven major clusters corresponded to (1) Nocardia asteroides, (2) Nocardia caviae, (3) Nocardia brasiliensis, (4) Actinomadura madurae, (5) Actinomadura pe lie fieri, (6) Oerskovia turbata, (7) the rhodochrous complex. The data revealed many new characters which could be weighted for identification. The clusters and subgroups were therefore readily distinguished from one another by several unrelated phenotypic characters.
Michael Goodfellow (Mon,) studied this question.