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Comparing Enterococcusgenomes

Enterococci form part of our natural intestinal flora, but also cause antibiotic-resistant infections in hospitals. In the June 13 Nature, Shankar et al. describe an analysis of different Enterococcus faecalisstrains, one from a hospital ward outbreak in the mid-1980s, MMH594, and the other from the first vancomycin-resistant isolate, V583 (Nature 2002, 417:746-750). Genomic comparisons revealed that the V583 isolate lacks a 17 kb region containing virulence genes, such as the cytolysin operon. Further comparison with the sequence of the non-infection-derived OG1 strain showed that the clinical isolates have a genomic insertion of around 150 kb. This element contains over one hundred genes encoding transposases, transcriptional regulators and virulence-associated proteins. The characterization of this novel pathogenicity island should be of benefit for diagnosis and for the identification of new drug targets.

References

  1. Nature , [http://www.nature.com]

  2. Multiple-drug resistant enterococci: the nature of the problem and an agenda for the future.

  3. The Institute for Genomic Research, [http://www.tigr.org/]

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Weitzman, J.B. Comparing Enterococcusgenomes. Genome Biol 3, spotlight-20020617-01 (2002). https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1186/gb-spotlight-20020617-01

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  • DOI: https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1186/gb-spotlight-20020617-01

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