Only bootstrap values > 70 are indicated on the tree. The roots of the clades defined in 1 are represented by bold lines. MLPA clusters of strains AZD1480 trial sharing identical STs or grouped into CCs sharing at least 4 identical alleles at the 7 loci are indicated by frames (red frames for clusters of human strains,

grey frames for clusters of non-human animal strains and uncolored frames for clusters of Aurora Kinase inhibitor strains of various origins). In these frames, the following characteristics are indicated from left to right: (i) the strain’s clinical involvement when applicable as Inf for infection and Col for colonization; (ii) the SwaI pulsotype of the strains, with strains of identical pulsotypes designated by the same letter, PI3K inhibitor strains with pulsotypes sharing more than 85% of their DNA fragments by A, A1, A2, … and strains with pulsotypes sharing no more than 70% of their DNA fragments by distinct letters, i.e., A, B, C, …; (iii) the names of STs shared by several strains; (iv) the names of CCs sharing at least 5 identical alleles at the 7 loci; and (v)

the names of CCs sharing at least 4 identical alleles at the 7 loci. These ST and CC names are indicated to the right of the brackets grouping the strains with identical STs or belonging to the same CC and are followed by the bootstrap value (indicated in parentheses) supporting the corresponding MLPA cluster. (*) indicates that the relative position of the corresponding branch varied according to the method used. ND, not determined. The multilocus sequence-based phylogeny supported the current taxonomy of the genus. In addition, both the high level of concatenated sequence divergence observed in the A. media cluster

and the comparison of the subtree topology for clusters including closely related known species, such as A. eucrenophila-A. encheleia-A. tecta, suggested that the A. media clade may constitute a polyphyletic cluster containing taxa that have yet to be described. Strain CCM 1271, showing a clearly segregated phylogenetic position in the MLPA, also likely represents an unknown Aeromonas taxon. Genetic diversity The number of different alleles for the 7 loci varied from 111 (rpoB) to 160 (dnaK) (Table 3). This significant variation (P value = 10-9) suggested distinct mutation rates among the loci. The equivalent mol% G + C content clonidine ranged from 55.8 (tsf) to 62.6% (radA) for all loci with the exception of zipA, which exhibited a lower mol% G + C content of 52.4%. The mean genetic diversity among strains was high for the whole genus, and of the 3 main clades, A. caviae displayed the lowest genetic diversity (h) for all genes (Table 3). The rate of polymorphic sites varied significantly between the A. caviae, A. hydrophila and A. veronii clades for all loci except for rpoB, with A. caviae being the clade that showed the lowest number of polymorphic sites for all loci (Table 3).