FIG. 1.

Neighbor-joining 16S rRNA phylogenetic tree showing relationships between the HTCC isolates and environmental sequences in the OMG group. Bootstrap proportions over 50% from the neighbor-joining analysis are shown. Brackets indicate the boundary of each subclade. Names in bold indicate 12 HTCC isolates used for growth characterization. Strain HTCC2149 in italics was not revived from the frozen stock. Seven different sequences in the genus Methylococcus were used as outgroup. Scale bar, 0.1 substitutions per nucleotide position.