Precise Species Identification for Enterobacter : a Genome Sequence-Based Study with Reporting of Two Novel Species, Enterobacter quasiroggenkampii sp. nov. and Enterobacter quasimori sp. nov

Abstract

Enterobacter species are major human pathogens. Precise species identification lays a foundation for microbiology, but the taxonomy of Enterobacter is complicated and confusing. In this study, first, we significantly updated the taxonomy of Enterobacter by rigorous genome analyses and found that all subspecies assignments of Enterobacter were incorrect. Second, we characterized and reported two novel Enterobacter species with clinical significance. Third, we curated 1,997 Enterobacter genome sequences deposited in GenBank and found that the species identification of most Enterobacter strains needed to be corrected. Fourth, we found that the most common Enterobacter species seen in clinical samples is Enterobacter xiangfangensis rather than Enterobacter cloacae . Fifth, we identified 14 tentative novel Enterobacter and 18 tentative novel non- Enterobacter species. This study highlights that updated and curated taxonomic assignments are the premise of correct species identification. We recommend that future Enterobacter studies need to use the updated taxonomy to avoid misleading information.