title: A survey of potential virulence factors in clinical and environmental isolates of Serratia marcescens.
abstract: One hundred and forty seven isolates of Serratia marcescens were collected from diverse clinical and environmental sources in south-east Texas. Natural isolates were compared with hospital strains for the occurrence of 12 potential virulence determinants. Their overall frequency was as follows: haemolytic activity 48%; lecithinase 95%; lipase 95%; motility 99%; pigmentation 24%; plasmid carriage 46%; proteolytic activity 98%; siderophore activity 99%; urease activity 5%; mannose-sensitive haemagglutination 96%; mannose-resistant haemagglutination 61%; and mannose-resistant type-K haemagglutination (MR/K-HA) 68%. Clinical strains demonstrated a significantly higher occurrence of MR/K-HA (p less than 0.001) and non-pigmentation (p less than 0.01) than environmental isolates.
mesh_terms: D006384:Hemagglutination; D006461:Hemolysis; D006801:Humans; D007501:Iron / Q000378:metabolism; D008049:Lipase / Q000378:metabolism; D009068:Movement; D010447:Peptide Hydrolases / Q000378:metabolism; D010740:Phospholipases / Q000378:metabolism; D010858:Pigmentation; D010957:Plasmids; D012706:Serratia marcescens / Q000235:genetics / Q000472:pathogenicity* / Q000502:physiology; D014510:Urease / Q000378:metabolism; D014774:Virulence
chemical_list: D007501:Iron; D010740:Phospholipases; D008049:Lipase; D010447:Peptide Hydrolases; D014510:Urease