title: Large scale variation in Enterococcus faecalis illustrated by the genome analysis of strain OG1RF.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Enterococcus faecalis has emerged as a major hospital pathogen. To explore its diversity, we sequenced E. faecalis strain OG1RF, which is commonly used for molecular manipulation and virulence studies.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The 2,739,625 base pair chromosome of OG1RF was found to contain approximately 232 kilobases unique to this strain compared to V583, the only publicly available sequenced strain. Almost no mobile genetic elements were found in OG1RF. The 64 areas of divergence were classified into three categories. First, OG1RF carries 39 unique regions, including 2 CRISPR loci and a new WxL locus. Second, we found nine replacements where a sequence specific to V583 was substituted by a sequence specific to OG1RF. For example, the iol operon of OG1RF replaces a possible prophage and the vanB transposon in V583. Finally, we found 16 regions that were present in V583 but missing from OG1RF, including the proposed pathogenicity island, several probable prophages, and the cpsCDEFGHIJK capsular polysaccharide operon. OG1RF was more rapidly but less frequently lethal than V583 in the mouse peritonitis model and considerably outcompeted V583 in a murine model of urinary tract infections.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  E. faecalis OG1RF carries a number of unique loci compared to V583, but the almost complete lack of mobile genetic elements demonstrates that this is not a defining feature of the species. Additionally, OG1RF's effects in experimental models suggest that mediators of virulence may be diverse between different E. faecalis strains and that virulence is not dependent on the presence of mobile genetic elements.
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, University of Texas Medical School, Houston, Texas 77030, USA. Agathe.Bourgogne@uth.tmc.edu
authors.forename: Agathe
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bourgogne
authors.forename: Danielle A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Garsin
authors.forename: Xiang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.forename: Kavindra V
authors.initials: KV
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: Jouko
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sillanpaa
authors.forename: Shailaja
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yerrapragada
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.forename: Shannon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dugan-Rocha
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Buhay
authors.forename: Hua
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.forename: Guan
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Gabrielle
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: Donna
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Muzny
authors.forename: Arash
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Maadani
authors.forename: Kristina A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Fox
authors.forename: Jason
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gioia
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Yue
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shang
authors.forename: Cesar A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Arias
authors.forename: Sreedhar R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Nallapareddy
authors.forename: Meng
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Vittal P
authors.initials: VP
authors.lastname: Prakash
authors.forename: Shahreen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chowdhury
authors.forename: Huaiyang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Richard A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Gibbs
authors.forename: Barbara E
authors.initials: BE
authors.lastname: Murray
authors.forename: Sarah K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Highlander
authors.forename: George M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Weinstock
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D018441:Biofilms; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry; D024881:Drug Resistance, Bacterial; D013293:Enterococcus faecalis / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics* / Q000472:pathogenicity; D005672:Fusidic Acid / Q000494:pharmacology; D014644:Genetic Variation; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D023281:Genomics; D020071:Interspersed Repetitive Sequences; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D051379:Mice; D009876:Operon; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D012293:Rifampin / Q000494:pharmacology; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; C409031:FsrA protein, Enterococcus faecalis; C409032:FsrB protein, Enterococcus; D008565:Membrane Proteins; D005672:Fusidic Acid; D012293:Rifampin