Genome of Superficieibacter maynardsmithii, a novel, antibiotic susceptible representative of Enterobacteriaceae

Abstract

<p>During a citywide microbiological screening project in Pavia (Italy) a bacterial strain isolated from the surface of an Automated Teller Machine was classified as a <i>Klebsiella</i> sp. by MALDI-TOF spectrometry, and shown to be susceptible to the most antimicrobial classes by phenotypic testing. After Illumina genome sequencing and subsequent assembly, a high-quality draft genome was obtained (size = 5,051,593 bp, N50 = 615,571 bp, largest contig = 1,328,029 bp, N_contig = 17, GC content = 51.58%, coverage = 141.42), absence of antimicrobial resistance genes was confirmed, but the strain resulted to be highly divergent from all <i>Klebsiella</i>, and more related to other <i>Enterobacteriaceae</i>. The higher values of 16S rRNA identity were with members of the genera <i>Citrobacter</i>, <i>Salmonella</i>, and “<i>Superficieibacter</i>.” An ortholog-based phylogenomic analysis indicated a sister group relationship with “<i>Superficieibacter electus</i>,” in a distinct clade from other members of the <i>Enterobacteriaceae</i> family. In order to evaluate whether the novel genome represents a new species of “<i>Superficiebacter</i>,” average nucleotide identity (ANI) and Hadamard analysis were performed on a dataset of 78 Enterobacteriaceae. The novel genome showed an ANI of 87.51% with <i>S. electus</i>, which compared on identity values between other members of the family, clearly indicates that the genome represents a new species within the genus “<i>Superficieibacter</i>.” We propose for the new species the name “<i>Superficieibacter maynardsmithii</i>.”<br /></p>