Prediction of pathogenicity islands in enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli O157:H7 using genomic barcodes.
The genome of lethal animal pathogenic bacterium Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) O157:H7 is characterized by the presence of multiple pathogenicity islands (PAIs). Computational methods have been developed to identify PAIs based on the distinguishing G+C levels in some PAI versus non-PAI regions. We observed that PAIs can have a very similar G+C level to that of the host chromosome, which may have led to false negative predictions using these methods. We have applied a novel method of genomic barcodes to identify PAIs. Using this technique, we have successfully identified both known and novel PAIs in the genomes of three strains of EHEC O157:H7.
Wang
Guoqing
G
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602 7229, USA.
Zhou
Fengfeng
F
Olman
Victor
V
Li
Fan
F
Xu
Ying
Y
D001482:Base Composition; D002876:Chromosomes, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics*; D019453:Escherichia coli O157 / Q000235:genetics / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D044404:Genomic Islands / Q000235:genetics*; D023281:Genomics / Q000379:methods*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA / Q000379:methods*