Comparison of two methods for bacteriocin typing of Serratia marcescens

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Abstract
Two methods of bacteriocin susceptibility typing for S. marcescens were compared; 80 epidemiologically unrelated isolates from patients in a single hospital were typed by the cross-streaking method and the mitomycin C-induced (spotting) method. The cross-streaking method was more discriminatory than the spotting method. The cross-streaking method was able to differentiate 50 bacteriocin groups among the 80 isolates; only 31 groups could be obtained with the spotting method. The reproducibility and percentage typability of the cross-streaking method (82.5 and 93.75%, respectively) were as good as, if not better than, those of the spotting method (78.75 and 90.0%, respectively). Other factors, such as lower cost, technical simplicity and the relative ease in scoring results, indicate a preference for the cross-streaking method. These findings support the choice of the cross-streaking method for bateriocin typing of S. marcescens in epidemiological studies.