Evolutionary genetics of a new pathogenic Escherichia species: Escherichia albertii and related Shigella boydii strains.

ABSTRACT: A bacterium originally described as Hafnia alvei induces diarrhea in rabbits and causes epithelial damage similar to the attachment and effacement associated with enteropathogenic Escherichia coli. Subsequent studies identified similar H. alvei-like strains that are positive for an intimin gene (eae) probe and, based on DNA relatedness, are classified as a distinct Escherichia species, Escherichia albertii. We determined sequences for multiple housekeeping genes in five E. albertii strains and compared these sequences to those of strains representing the major groups of pathogenic E. coli and Shigella. A comparison of 2,484 codon positions in 14 genes revealed that E. albertii strains differ, on average, at approximately 7.4% of the nucleotide sites from pathogenic E. coli strains and at 1

SUBMITTER: Hyma KE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC543563 | biostudies-literature | 2005 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature