Serratia marcescens strain:MCB Genome sequencing and assembly

Serratia is a genus of bacteria that is Gram-negative, motile, rod-shaped and belongs to the Enterobacteriacea family. Serratia species have been discovered from plants, vertebrates and invertebrates with over 70 species discovered in insects (Grimont et al., 1979; Chung et al., 2013). Recently Serratia nematodiphila was found to be mutually associated with a newly discovered entomopathogenic nematode (EPN) Heterorhabditidoides\Oscheius chongmingensis and Heterorhabditidoides\Oscheius rugaoensis (Zhang et al., 2009; Zhang et al., 2012). The mutual relationship with EPNs results in Serratia species secreting various metabolites some of which have the ability to kill insect hosts and inhibit growth of competing bacterial and fungal species, and this has been seen in other bacteria such as Xenorhabdus and Photorhabdus (Wang et al., 2011). One metabolite with antibiotic activity secreted by Serratia marcescens is prodigiosin (Grimont and Grimont, 1978). Here we present the description of a complete genome and the annotation of Serratia marcescens strain MCB which was isolated from Oscheius sp. MCB discovered from South African soil.