Characterization of Serratia fonticola, an opportunistic pathogen isolated from drinking water

Abstract

We characterized the ST2 strain of Serratia fonticola isolated from drinking water of a capping spring on Mt. Vlasina. The ST2 strain isolated from bottled water showed the characteristics of Enterobacteriaceae family but not of the Serratia genus. S. fonticola belongs to a group of opportunistic pathogens and can cause illness in people with weak or damaged immune systems. A biochemical characterization of the strain was made by using the identification system API (bioMèrieux®). Molecular characterization was done by PCR amplification of 16S rDNA gene using the thermal cycling sequencing method and by sequencing. By comparing the obtained 1016 nucleotide sequence with the NCBI collection of all deposited sequences for 16S rDNK, and by using the BLAST search service, the highest identity (98% uniformity) was obtained with the S. fonticola strain, designated as LMG 7882 (gi|15054669|gb|AF286869.1). The identity of 16S rDNA between the referent strain and ST2 is not absolute, indicating an autochthonous origin of strain ST2.