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Infection and Immunity, May 2001, p. 3271-3285, Vol. 69, No. 5
Department of Enteric Infections, Division of
Communicable Diseases and Immunology, Walter Reed Army Institute of
Research, Silver Spring, Maryland 209101;
Infectious Disease Division, Massachusetts General Hospital,
Boston, Massachuetts 021142; and
Laboratory of Genetics, University of Wisconsin, Madison,
Wisconsin 537063
Received 19 September 2000/Returned for modification 22 November
2000/Accepted 31 January 2001
The complete sequence analysis of the 210-kb Shigella
flexneri 5a virulence plasmid was determined.
Shigella spp. cause dysentery and diarrhea by invasion and
spread through the colonic mucosa. Most of the known
Shigella virulence determinants are encoded on a large
plasmid that is unique to virulent strains of Shigella and
enteroinvasive Escherichia coli; these known genes account for approximately 30 to 35% of the virulence plasmid. In the complete sequence of the virulence plasmid, 286 open reading frames (ORFs) were
identified. An astonishing 153 (53%) of these were related to known
and putative insertion sequence (IS) elements; no known bacterial
plasmid has previously been described with such a high proportion of IS
elements. Four new IS elements were identified. Fifty putative proteins
show no significant homology to proteins of known function; of these,
18 have a G+C content of less than 40%, typical of known virulence
genes on the plasmid. These 18 constitute potentially unknown virulence
genes. Two alleles of shet2 and five alleles of
ipaH were also identified on the plasmid. Thus, the plasmid
sequence suggests a remarkable history of IS-mediated acquisition of
DNA across bacterial species. The complete sequence will permit
targeted characterization of potential new Shigella virulence determinants.
0019-9567/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/IAI.69.5.3271-3285.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Complete DNA Sequence and Analysis of the Large
Virulence Plasmid of Shigella flexneri
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address for Malabi M. Venkatesan: Department of Enteric Infections, Division of Communicable Diseases and Immunology, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, 503 Robert Forney Dr., Silver Spring, MD 20910. Phone: (301) 319-9764. Fax:
(301) 319-9801. E-mail:
Malabi.Venkatesan{at}NA.AMEDD.ARMY.MIL. Mailing
address for Marcia B. Goldberg: Infectious Disease Division, Massachusetts General Hospital, GRJ504, 55 Fruit St., Boston, MA
02114. Phone: (617) 432-3238. Fax: (617) 432-3259. E-mail: mgoldberg1{at}partners.org.
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