ABSTRACT
The genus Yersinia was proposed by Van Loghem in honor of A. J. E. Yersin to accommodate Yersinia pestis and Y. pseudotuberculosis which were previously classified in the genus Pasteurella. Y. enterocolitica strains, unlike Y. pseudotuberculosis, show considerable biochemical variability. The biochemical profiles of Y. enterocolitica and Y. enterocolitica-like strains are quite dependent upon the temperature of incubation. Domaradskij et al. reported that Y. enterocolitica deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) contained somewhat more than 45% guanine plus cytosine. R. L. Moore and R. R. Brubaker used DNA hybridization to determine that 12 strains of Y. enterocolitica from biotypes 1 to 4 belonged to the same species. J. Stevens and N. S. Mair did a numerical taxonomic study of Y. enterocolitica and considered the trehalose-negative strains to be members of a separate species. A second sucrose-negative group was described by Fredericksen. These organisms were trehalose-positive.
