Molecular evolutionary relationships of enteroinvasive Escherichia coli and Shigella spp.

ABSTRACT: Enteroinvasive Escherichia coli (EIEC), a distinctive pathogenic form of E. coli causing dysentery, is similar in many properties to bacteria placed in the four species of Shigella. Shigella has been separated as a genus but in fact comprises several clones of E. coli. The evolutionary relationships of 32 EIEC strains of 12 serotypes have been determined by sequencing of four housekeeping genes and two plasmid genes which were used previously to determine the relationships of Shigella strains. The EIEC strains were grouped in four clusters with one outlier strain, indicating independent derivation of EIEC several times. Three of the four clusters contain more than one O antigen type. One EIEC strain (an O112ac:H- strain) was found in Shigella cluster 3 but is not identical to the Shigella

SUBMITTER: Lan R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC517479 | biostudies-literature | 2004 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature