Markers to Rapidly Distinguish From the Very Close Relative, .

As close relatives, is often wrongly identified as . In this study, two genetic markers are presented based on and from the fengycin operon of to rapidly distinguish it from . The fengycin operon is one of the few present in but absent in up to date. Using these markers, two presumptive isolates each were recovered from a set of isolates previously identified as by Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight (MALDI-TOF) or identified only to genus level as by 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene sequencing, respectively. Whole genome sequencing of the four isolates confirmed their identity as having the closest similarity with ATCC 9945a (GenBank: CP005965.1) with a 7,682 k-mer score and 97.22% Average Nucleotide Identity (ANI). ANI of 100% suggests that the four isolates are highly similar. Further analysis will be necessary to determine if finer differences exist among these isolates at the level of single nucleotide polymorphisms.