Error-prone DNA repair system in enteroaggregative Escherichia coli identified by subtractive hybridization.

ABSTRACT: Enteroaggregative Escherichia coli (EAEC) are etiologic agents of diarrhea. The EAEC category is heterogeneous, but most in-depth experimentation has focused on prototypical strain, 042. We hypothesized that 60A, another EAEC strain, might posses virulence or fitness genes that 042 does not have. Through subtractive hybridization we identified 60A-specific sequences, including loci present in other E. coli and phage DNA. One locus thus identified was impB, a LexA repressed error-prone DNA repair gene that has been identified in plasmids from other enteric organisms and which we detected in 21 of 34 EAEC strains. An isogenic 60A impB mutant showed decreased survival and mutagenesis after exposure to UV, as well as bile salt exposure, compared to the wild-type strain, and these phenotypes co

SUBMITTER: Joo LM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1913340 | biostudies-literature | 2007 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature