NC_009438:212476 Shewanella putrefaciens CN-32 chromosome, complete genome
Host Lineage: Shewanella putrefaciens; Shewanella; Shewanellaceae; Alteromonadales; Proteobacteria; Bacteria
General Information: Shewanella putrefaciens is a Gram-negative bacterium. It has been isolated from marine environments, as well as from anaerobic sandstone in the Morrison formation in New Mexico, USA. 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 odor of rotting fish, as it is a marine organism which produces trimethylamines (hence the species name putrefaciens, from putrid). This genus includes species that inhabit a wide range of environments and are capable of utilizing a wide variety of electron acceptors during anaerobic respiration including some insoluble metal oxides while using very few carbon sources such as lactate or acetate. This group of organisms have been studied extensively for their electron transport systems. This species, along with Shewanella algae, are the only Shewanella spp. to be found in clinical speciments. Normally found in marine environments in warmer temperatures, infections seem to occur more frequently in countries with a warm climate and in other countries during warm summer months.