Paper Title
Bacterial Phylogeny in Sediments and Environmental Characteristics of Aegean Sea

Abstract
The bacterial phylogeny of the Aegean Sea sediments together with geochemical parameters was studied. This cultivation-based study provided highly diverse three phyla. According to 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis of isolates, mainly the Firmicutes with Bacillus the most frequent genus was obtained from each station and then the Gammaproteobacteria with five different genera was isolated mostly from shallower stations and also the Actinobacteria with mostly Streptomyces strains from the deepest sediments. Seven percent of the isolates affiliated with the genera Bacillus, Halomonas, Photobacterium and Streptomyces were considered as representing new taxa. On the other hand, physicochemical parameters of seawater and sediment samples underlined the general characteristics of study area in Aegean Sea. When those were combined with bacterial phylogeny, the present study also provided information for better understanding of species-area relationships. Index Terms—Biogeochemical analysis, Mediterranean Sea, phylogenetic diversity, 16S rRNA genes.