Serratia vespertilionis (García-Fraile et al. 2015) is a later heterotypic synonym of Serratia ficaria (Grimont et al. 1981)

Abstract

A previous 16S rRNA gene sequence comparison had demonstrated that the type strains of Serratia vespertilionis and Serratia ficaria shared 99.5 % sequence similarity. Despite the 56.2 % homology by DNA–DNA hybridization previously found between these strains, the results of an in silico whole-genome sequence comparison and a new DNA–DNA hybridization study have clearly demonstrated that the genomes of the type strain of S. vespertilionis deposited in different Culture Collections (52T=CECT 8595T=DSM 28727T) and the type strain of S. ficaria (culture DSM 4569T), cannot support such a species differentiation. Tests for substrate utilization redone on the deposited cultures of these strains has also shown very few differences between the type strains of both species. Based on these results, and since the name S. ficaria was validly published earlier, S. vespertilionis should be considered as a later heterotypic synonym of S. ficaria , in application of the priority rule. The type strain of the species S. ficaria is strain 4024T=DSM 4569T=NCTC 12148T=ATCC 33105T=CIP 79.23T=ICPB 4050T.