Current knowledge and perspectives on the emerging Inquilinus limosus pathogen

SUMMARYInquilinus limosus is a nonfermentative Gram-negative rod that has been reported as an emergent pathogen, particularly in chronic respiratory diseases. I. limosus was first isolated from the airways of a lung transplant patient suffering from cystic fibrosis (CF). As I. limosus is almost exclusively recovered from the airways of CF patients, its identification may be challenging for non-CF specialists. Indeed, I. limosus is mainly isolated from the airways of CF patients, and its pathogenesis and treatments are still debated. We have extensively reported and reviewed the different clinical cases described in the literature, the identification methods used, and the antimicrobial susceptibility testing performed. Therefore, we provide here an exhaustive description of the phenotypic features and antimicrobial susceptibilities of I. limosus. Only seven I. limosus genomes are currently available in public databases. These genomes are not fully assembled and therefore allow only partial genomic analyses, which could not unveil antimicrobial resistance determinants or virulence factors. They are approximately 7 Mb in size and encode between 6,036 and 7,483 genes. Given that the available genomes are incomplete, our genomic analyses are still limited and would undoubtedly benefit from further fully sequenced and annotated genomes to provide additional information on the antibiotic resistance and pathogenesis of I. limosus. We anticipate that our review will be a starting point for more genome sequencing studies, as well as epidemiological studies, to provide additional information on I. limosus for better management of patients.