Usefulness of Electrophoretic Pattern of Cell Envelope Protein as a Taxonomic Tool for Fishhold Slime Moraxella Species

Nine independent Moraxella cultures were isolated from the accumulated slime in fishholds of fishery trawlers. It is significant that none of these isolates was viable above 30 degrees C, a temperature well below the usual incubation temperature for plate counts of food samples. The traditional taxonomic parameters showed no significant dissimilarities among these closely related marine organisms or between them and conventional moraxellas. However, cell envelope protein profiles examined on sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gels revealed that the organisms fell into several distinct groups. The cell envelope protein profile could be a simple and quick test to determine the fine relationships between individual isolates.