Major role of iron uptake systems in the intrinsic extra-intestinal virulence of the genus Escherichia revealed by a genome-wide association study.

ABSTRACT: The genus Escherichia is composed of several species and cryptic clades, including E. coli, which behaves as a vertebrate gut commensal, but also as an opportunistic pathogen involved in both diarrheic and extra-intestinal diseases. To characterize the genetic determinants of extra-intestinal virulence within the genus, we carried out an unbiased genome-wide association study (GWAS) on 370 commensal, pathogenic and environmental strains representative of the Escherichia genus phylogenetic diversity and including E. albertii (n = 7), E. fergusonii (n = 5), Escherichia clades (n = 32) and E. coli (n = 326), tested in a mouse model of sepsis. We found that the presence of the high-pathogenicity island (HPI), a ~35 kbp gene island encoding the yersiniabactin siderophore, is highly associated w

SUBMITTER: Galardini M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7592755 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature