The biochemical, serological, and epidemiological characteristics of 95 strains of Serratia marcescens isolated at the Boston City Hospital were examined. Several strains were shown to be endemic, and the majority of isolates were cultured from urine or respiratory secretions. Serratia species were highly resistant to polymyxin B and the cephalosporins, and various proportions were also resista...

Human contact with bears has become more frequent, as has the resultant bear maulings and bite injuries. We report the bacteriology of a patient bitten by a grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) from the Rocky Mountains foothills area east of Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada. The patient received field care, including metronidazole and cefazolin. Subsequent deep-wound cultures grew Serratia fonticola...

The addition of glucose or other sugars to resting cells of Serratia maurcescens induced rapid acidification of the extracellular medium. This acidification was due to the catabolism of sugars. The rate of acidification depended on the carbon source and its concentration. HPLC analysis of the supernatants demonstrated that the progressive fall in pH resulted from the rapid production of lactic,...

The draft genome sequences of two clonal, pandrug-resistant Serratia marcescens clinical isolates were determined. The resistance phenotype was plasmid driven, as 14 of 17 resistance genes were present on large IncFIB(K), IncHI2, and IncA/C2 plasmids indicating a large pool of transmissible antibiotic resistance genes.

Electrophoretic properties of chromatin subunits--nucleosomes--obtained by treatment of chromatin with the Serratia marcescens endonuclease have been studied. Double-stranded breaks of DNA between adjacent nucleosomes do not necessarily lead to their disjunction. Fragmentation of the DNA within the nucleosomes may proceed simultaneously with the breakdown of the DNA between the nucleosomes at e...

Most organisms reproduce through outcrossing, even though it comes with substantial costs. The Red Queen hypothesis proposes that selection from coevolving pathogens facilitates the persistence of outcrossing despite these costs. We used experimental coevolution to test the Red Queen hypothesis and found that coevolution with a bacterial pathogen (Serratia marcescens) resulted in significantly ...

Resting-cell suspensions of Serratia marcescens were able to convert, quantitatively, 0.3% vanillin to vanillic acid. The vanillic acid-producing activity reached a maximum after 28 h of incubation with 0.01% vanillin as an inducer.