TABLE 3.

Characterization of the 27 culturable, numerically dominant, phenanthrene-degrading bacterial isolates from the B&W soil

16S-23S spacer DNA similarity group	No. of isolates	Spf190, Sphingo-108F, and Sphingo-429R positivea	Strain(s) sequenced	Closest relative based on partial 16S rDNA sequence
				Taxon	% Homology	Accession no.
1	10	Yes	ARJ7 and ARJ19	Sphingomonas paucimobilis EPA505	100	437341
				Sphingomonas subarctica	100	X99100
2	1	Yes	NDb	ND
3	1	Yes	ARJ81	Sphingomonas sp. strain BAL5	100	463937
4	1	Yes	ARJ13	Sphingomonas subarctica	98	X94098
				Sphingomonas sp. strain MBIC3020	98	AB025279
5	14	No	ARJ45	Unclassified beta-proteobacterium strain ND5	100	AB008506

^aSpf90, Sphingo-108F, and Sphingo-429R are Sphingomonas-specific 16S DNA primers.

^bND, not determined.