title: A variant enterococcal surface protein Esp(fm) in Enterococcus faecium; distribution among food, commensal, medical, and environmental isolates.
abstract: Enterococci are increasingly important causes of nosocomial disease. Also, they are associated with food and have a history of use as dairy starter and probiotic cultures. An enterococcal surface protein Esp(fs) is involved the virulence and biofilm-forming capacity of Enterococcus faecalis and recently we demonstrated the presence of a homologue Esp(fm) in E. faecium. Here we describe the complete structure of Esp(fm) and demonstrate that its distribution in E. faecium correlates with disease associated strains from a range of pathological sites.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Food Research, Norwich Research Park, Colney, NR4 7UA, Norwich, UK. tracy.eaton@bbsrc.ac.uk
authors.forename: Tracy J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Eaton
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Gasson
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001422:Bacterial Adhesion; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D016984:Enterococcus faecium / Q000235:genetics*; D004777:Environment; D005516:Food Microbiology; D014644:Genetic Variation; D016908:Gram-Positive Bacterial Infections / Q000382:microbiology*; D006801:Humans; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D014774:Virulence / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D008565:Membrane Proteins; C116707:enterococcal surface protein, esp