title: Complete nucleotide sequence of a virulence plasmid of Salmonella enterica serovar Dublin and its phylogenetic relationship to the virulence plasmids of serovars Choleraesuis, Enteritidis and Typhimurium.
abstract: The complete nucleotide sequence of pOU1113 (pSDVu), one of the two types of virulence plasmids of Salmonella enterica serovar Dublin, was determined. It contained 80 156 bp with 53.8 mol% G+C content. Approximately 70 genes could be discerned. Compared with pSTV, the virulence plasmid of serovar Typhimurium, pOU1113 was shorter owing to a missing region amounting to c. 10 kb; furthermore, except for a unique 10 849-bp region, the nucleotide as well as deduced amino acid sequences of pOU1113 were nearly identical to the corresponding regions of three S. enterica virulence plasmids, namely pSCV (virulence plasmid of Choleraesuis), pSTV and pSEV (virulence plasmids of Enteritidis), confirming their close phylogenetic relationship. Comparative analysis indicated that these virulence plasmids appeared to have descended by deletion from a relatively large plasmid to smaller ones, with some recombination events occurring over time. From a biological and evolutionary point of view, if the decreasing sizes of pOU1113 and pSCV truly reflect a process in which the virulence plasmid has been shedding unnecessary genes during evolution, our data suggest that some genes in the missing region, such as the pef and tra operons, could have a minimal role in maintaining the survival of the bacteria in their environmental niche.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Taoyuan, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Seau-Feng
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.forename: Cheng-Hsun
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Chiu
authors.forename: Chishih
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chu
authors.forename: Ye
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Jonathan T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Ou
mesh_terms: D001482:Base Composition; D001483:Base Sequence; D004261:DNA Replication; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009876:Operon; D010802:Phylogeny; D010957:Plasmids / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics; D019779:Salmonella enterica / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D014774:Virulence
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial