[Description of 23 cellulolytic or non-cellulolytic clostridia isolated from a marine milieu]

Twenty-three obligately anaerobic mesophilic bacteria were isolated from marine environments. The isolates were rod-shaped, spore-forming bacteria and were placed in the genus Clostridium. They could be divided into three groups: 9 non-cellulolytic strains which used cellobiose as sole energy and carbon source; 6 pseudo-cellulolytic strains which fermented carboxymethyl-cellulose but degraded cellulose very slowly, and 8 cellulolytic bacteria. The morphological, physiological and biochemical characteristics indicated that, except for one strain which could be identified with C. aminovalerium and three strains which resembled C. sphenoides, these marine clostridia did not correspond to any previously described species.