Pathogenicity-associated islands in extraintestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli are fitness elements involved in intestinal colonization.

ABSTRACT: The virulence of many human pathogens does not seem to be an evolutionarily selected trait, but an accidental by-product of the selection that operates in another ecological context. We investigated the possibility that virulence of the extraintestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli (ExPEC) strains, which frequently cause disease in the host in which they asymptomatically colonize the intestine, is the consequence of commensalism. Most of the ExPEC virulence factors are clustered on genomic islands called pathogenicity-associated islands (PAIs). We constructed and characterized several mutants of the ExPEC 536 strain with either (i) deletions of each single PAI or (ii) a complete deletion of all seven PAIs. In vitro phenotypic characterization of 536 mutants showed that the seven PAIs were di

SUBMITTER: Diard M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2944530 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature