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Serratia marcescens, a member of the Enterobacteriaceae family, is a Gram-negative bacterium responsible for a wide range of nosocomial infections. The emergence of multidrug-resistant strains is an increasing danger to public health. To design effective means to control the dissemination of S. marcescens, an in-depth analysis of the population structure and variation is required. Utilizing whole-genome sequencing, we characterized the population structure and variation, as well as the antimicrobial resistance determinants, of a systematic collection of antimicrobial-resistant S. marcescens associated with bloodstream infections in hospitals across the United Kingdom and Ireland between 2001 and 2011. Our results show that S. marcescens is a diverse species with a high level of genomic variation. However, the collection was largely composed of a limited number of clones that emerged from this diverse …