Etymologia: Cronobacter sakazakii

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Ronnie Henry

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Cronobacter sakazakii [kroʹno-bakʺtər sakʹǝ-zakʺee-ī]

Thumbnail of Francisco Goya (1746–1828), Saturn Devouring His Son, 1819–1823, oil mural transferred to canvas, via Wikimedia Commons.

Figure. Francisco Goya (1746–1828), Saturn Devouring His Son, 1819–1823, oil mural transferred to canvas, via Wikimedia Commons.

The first documented isolation of what would become known as Cronobacter sakazakii was from a can of dried milk in 1950, although these organisms have likely existed for millions of years. In 1980, John J. Farmer III, proposed the name Enterobacter sakazakii for what had been known as “yellow-pigmented E. cloacae,” in honor of Japanese bacteriologist Riichi Sakazaki. Over the next decades, E. sakazakii was implicated in scores of cases of meningitis and sepsis among infants, frequently in association with powdered infant formula. In 2007, the genus Cronobacter was created to accommodate the biogroups of E. sakazakii, with C. sakazakii as the type species. The genus was named for Cronos, the Titan of Greek myth, who devoured his children as they were born (Figure).

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References

Farmer JJ III. My 40-year history with Cronobacter/Enterobacter sakazakii—lessons learned, myths debunked, and recommendations. Front Pediatr. 2015;3:84. DOI PubMed
Farmer JJ, Asbury MA, Hickman FW, Brenner DJ. The Enterobacteriaceae Study Group. Enterobacter sakazakii: a new species of “Enterobacteriaceae” isolated from clinical specimens. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol. 1980;30:569–84.
Iversen C, Mullane N, McCardell B, Tall BD, Lehner A, Fanning S, et al. Cronobacter gen. nov., a new genus to accommodate the biogroups of Enterobacter sakazakii, and proposal of Cronobacter sakazakii gen. nov., comb. nov., Cronobacter malonaticus sp. nov., Cronobacter turicensis sp. nov., Cronobacter muytjensii sp. nov., Cronobacter dublinensis sp. nov., Cronobacter genomospecies 1, and of three subspecies, Cronobacter dublinensis subsp. dublinensis subsp. nov., Cronobacter dublinensis subsp. lausannensis subsp. nov. and Cronobacter dublinensissubsp. lactaridi subsp. nov. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol. 2008;58:1442–7. DOI PubMed