A genetic locus of enterocyte effacement conserved among diverse enterobacterial pathogens.
Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) and enterohemorrhagic E. coli O157:H7 are intestinal pathogens that profoundly damage the microvilli and subapical cytoskeleton of epithelial cells. Here we report finding in EPEC a 35-kbp locus containing several regions implicated in formation of these lesions. DNA probes throughout this locus hybridize to E. coli O157:H7 and other pathogens of three genera that cause similar lesions but do not hybridize to avirulent members of the same species. The EPEC locus and a different virulence locus of uropathogenic E. coli insert into the E. coli chromosome at the identical site and share highly similar sequences near the point of insertion.
McDaniel
T K
TK
Department of Medicine, Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Baltimore, MD.
Jarvis
K G
KG
Donnenberg
M S
MS
Kaper
J B
JB
D001483:Base Sequence; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics*; D004751:Enteritis / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000473:pathology; D004848:Epithelium / Q000473:pathology; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016254:Mutagenesis, Insertional; D015183:Restriction Mapping
D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D004269:DNA, Bacterial