Classification of a novel Serratia species, isolated from a wound swab in North Rhine-Westphalia: Proposal of Serratia sarumanii sp. nov

Novel, white-pigmented, Gram-negative bacterial strains (K-M0706^T, K-M0228, K-M0252, K-M0260) were isolated from clinical samples. With a similarity of up to 69.7 % to Serratia nevei S15^T and up to 63.8 % to Serratia marcescens ATCC 13880^T, as determined by digital DNA-DNA hybridization, the strains were assigned as novel species of the genus Serratia. The species can easily be differentiated from the red colored Serratia marcescens sensu stricto by its white phenotype. Discrimination between this strain and Serratia nevei is possible due to alpha-glucosidase activity and O/129-resistance, as shown for strain K-M0706^T. The major fatty acids were determined as myristate, palmitate, cis–9,10-methylenehexadecanoate, linoleate, and (all cis-9,10)-methyleneoctadecanoate. These phenotypical and genomic data support the assignment of a novel species within the genus Serratia, named S. sarumanii due to its pathogenicity and white phenotype, with strain K-M0706^T as the type strain.