3.2. Genetic and phylogenetic analysis
The recovered isolates from the diseased lumpsuckers displaying T. maritimum morphology, amplified with the T. maritimum specific primers, showed distinct bands at 1088 bp for MAR1 and MAR2 and 400 bp for Mar1 and Mar2 as shown in Fig. 2. Sequencing of these isolates using the 16S rRNA primers B27F and A1518R showed that all sequenced isolates were identical and were designated as Tenacibaculum sp. strain NLF-15. The ANI and PNI of strain NLF-15 and T. maritimum NCIMB 2154T were 98.73% and 99.1%, respectively, which means that the isolates belong to the T. maritimum species ( Stakebrandt and Ebers, 2006, Goris et al., 2007, Richter and Rosselló-Móra, 2009 and Kim et al., 2014).