Shewanella putrefaciens

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Shewanella putrefaciens
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Bacteria Phylum: Proteobacteria Class: Gamma Proteobacteria Order: Alteromonadales Family: Shewanellaceae Genus: Shewanella
Binomial name
Shewanella putrefaciens (Lee et al. 1981) MacDonell and Colwell 1986
Synonyms
Pseudomonas putrefaciens (Derby and Hammer 1931) Long and Hammer 1941 Achromobacter putrefaciens Derby and Hammer 1931 Alteromonas putrefaciens (ex Derby and Hammer 1931) Lee et al. 1981

Shewanella putrefaciens is a Gram-negative marine bacterium. S. putrefaciens is also a facultative anaerobe with the ability to reduce iron and manganese metabolically; that is, it can use iron and manganese as the terminal electron acceptor in the electron transport chain (in contrast to obligate aerobes which must use oxygen for this purpose). It is also one of the organisms associated with the odour of rotting fish, as it is a marine organism which produces trimethylamines (hence the species name putrefaciens, from putrid).

In both solid and liquid media, S. putrefaciens is often recognizable by its bright pink colour. On solid media, the colonies are round, fast-growing, and pink. The organism is also fast-growing in liquid media, and there will give the liquid an overall pink hue.

Although it is very rare for it to act as a human pathogen, there have been cases of infections and bacteremia caused by S. putrefaciens.^[1]

[edit] References

1. ^ L. Pagani, A. Lang, C. Vedovelli, O. Moling, G. Rimenti, R. Pristerà, and P. Mian: "Soft Tissue Infection and Bacteremia Caused by Shewanella putrefaciens". Journal of Clinical Microbiology, May 2003