Molecular Level Relationships of Purple Nonsulfur Bacteria and their Relatives

DNA-DNA hybridization by kinetic method was carried out between species of purple nonsulfur photosynthetic bacteria and nonphotosynthetic bacteria. The degrees of homology percent were shown to be low (2-35 D%) with the exception of high homology % (72-88 D%) for strains within a species and between Rhodobacter capsulatus and Rhodopseudomonas blastica. The D% between the purple nonsulfur photosynthetic bacteria, Rhodopseudomonas palustris, and nonphotosynthetic bacteria, Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 27853 or Bradyrhizobium japonicum were a little higher (26-33 D%) than the D% between any other photosynthetic bacteria. The homology % between Rhodopseudomonas blastica and Rhodobacter capsulatus was 72 D%, which showed genetic relationship.