Ability of commercial identification systems to identify newly recognized species of Citrobacter

The genus Citrobacter was recently determined to contain 11 genetically distinct species. In addition, the International Committee on Systematic Bacteriology no longer recognizes C. diversus and has, instead, validated the name C. koseri in its place. The 11 species are C. freundii, C. koseri, C. amalonaticus, C. farmeri, C. youngae, C. braakii, C. werkmanii, C. sedlakii, and three unnamed groups, genomospecies 9, 10, and 11. To determine the ease with which some identification systems could respond to these changes, we evaluated five systems for their potential ability to recognize current species in the genus Citrobacter. A simple dichotomous key using conventional biochemicals is presented that may be helpful to presumptively identify Citrobacter strains.