Shewanella infection in humans: Epidemiology, clinical features and pathogenicity

Abstract

The genus Shewanella consists of Gram-negative proteobacteria that are ubiquitously distributed in environment. As the members of this genus have rapidly increased within the past decade, several species have become emerging pathogens worldwide, attracting the attention of the medical community. These species are also associated with severe community- and hospital-acquired infections. Patients infected with Shewanella spp. had experiences of occupational or recreational exposure; meanwhile, the process of infection is complex and the pathogenicity is influenced by a variety of factors. Here, an exhaustive internet-based literature search was carried out in PUBMED using terms "Achromobacter putrefaciens," "Pseudomonas putrefaciens," "Alteromonas putrefaciens" and "Shewanella" to search literatures published between 1978 and June 2022. We provided a comprehensive review on the epidemiology, clinical features and pathogenicity of Shewanella, which will contribute a better understanding of its clinical aetiology, and facilitate the timely diagnosis and effective treatment of Shewanella infection for clinicians and public health professionals.

Keywords: Shewanella infection; Shewanella spp.; clinical features; epidemiology; pathogenicity; virulence.

Figure 1.

Geographical distribution of 273 Shewanella infectious cases. The geographical distribution of cases are Denmark (n = 71), Spain (n = 39), Africa (n = 30), China (n = 19), U.S.A (n = 17), Martinique (n = 16), India (n = 12), France (n = 9), Japan (n = 7), Korea (n = 5), Turkey (n = 6), Australia (n = 5), Caucasian (n = 3), Croatia (n = 2), Malaysia (n = 2), Thailand (n = 2), Belgium (n = 2), Italy (n = 2), Panama (n = 1), Mexico (n = 1), Moroccan (n = 1), Belize (n = 1), Wakefield (n = 1), Virginia (n = 1), Bahamas (n = 1), Romania (n = 1), Madagascar (n = 1), Germany (n = 1), Caribbean (n = 1), Cyprus (n = 1), UK (n = 1), Brunei Darussalam (n = 1), Puerto Rico (n = 1), Russia (n = 1), New Zealand (n = 1), Côte d’Ivoire (n = 1), and Israel (n = 1). Information on the geographical location of 5 cases is not available.

Figure 2.

Clinical infections and diseases caused by Shewanella species.

Figure 3.

Concatenated split network tree based on six genes loci. The gyrA, gyrB, infB, recN, rpoA, and topA gene sequences from 66 Shewanella species were concatenated and reconstructed using SplitsTree program (version: 4.14.4), based on Jukes-Cantor model.

Figure 4.

Colony morphology of Shewanella strains on different plates. Figure 4a, 4b, 4c and d showed the colonies on marine agar 2216, nutrient agar, TCBS and MacConkey agar, respectively, after incubating at 37 °C for 18–24 h. Figure e and f represent the growth of S. algae JCM 21037^T and S. putrefaciens ATCC 8071^T on sheep blood agar, after incubating at 37 °C for 72 h, respectively.