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Infection and Immunity, October 1999, p. 5265-5274, Vol. 67, No. 10
0019-9567/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Common and Specific Characteristics of the High-Pathogenicity Island of Yersinia enterocolitica

A. Rakin,* C. Noelting, S. Schubert, and J. Heesemann

Max-von-Pettenkofer-Institüt für Hygiene und Medizinische Mikrobiologie, Ludwig Maximilians Universität München, 80336 Munich, Germany

Received 24 May 1999/Returned for modification 22 June 1999/Accepted 6 July 1999

Yersinia pestis, Y. pseudotuberculosis O:1, and Y. enterocolitica biogroup 1B strains carry a high-pathogenicity island (HPI), which mediates biosynthesis and uptake of the siderophore yersiniabactin and a mouse-lethal phenotype. The HPI of Y. pestis and Y. pseudotuberculosis (Yps HPI) are highly conserved in sequence and organization, while the HPI of Y. enterocolitica (Yen HPI) differs significantly. The 43,393-bp Yen HPI sequence of Y. enterocolitica WA-C, serotype O:8, was completed and compared to that of the Yps HPI of Y. pseudotuberculosis PB1, serotype O:1A. A common GC-rich region (G+C content, 57.5 mol%) of 30.5 kb is conserved between yersinia strains. This region carries genes for yersiniabactin biosynthesis, regulation, and uptake and thus can be considered the functional "core" of the HPI. In contrast, the second part of the HPI is AT rich and completely different in two evolutionary lineages of the HPI, being 12.8 kb in the Yen HPI and 5.6 kb in the Yps HPI. The variable part acquired one IS100 element in the Yps HPI and accumulated four insertion elements, IS1328, IS1329, IS1400, and IS1222, in the Yen HPI. The insertion of a 125-bp ERIC sequence modifies the structure of the promoter of the ybtA yersiniabactin regulator in the Yen HPI. In contrast to the precise excision of the Yps HPI in Y. pseudotuberculosis, the Yen HPI suffers imprecise deletions. The Yen HPI is stably integrated in one of the three asn tRNA copies in Y. enterocolitica biogroup 1B (serotypes O:8, O:13, O:20, and O:21), probably due to inactivation of the putative integrase. The 17-bp duplications of the 3' end of the asnT RNA are present in both Yersinia spp. The HPI attachment site is unoccupied in nonpathogenic Y. enterocolitica NF-O, biogroup 1A, serotype O:5. The HPI of Yersinia is a composite and widely spread genomic element with a highly conserved yersiniabactin functional "core" and a divergently evolved variable part.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Max von Pettenkofer-Institut für Hygiene und Medizinische Mikrobiologie, Pettenkofer Str.9a, 80336 Munich, Germany. Phone: 49-0-89-5160-5261. Fax: 49-0-89-51605223. E-mail: rakin{at}m3401.mpk.med.uni-muenchen.de.

Infection and Immunity, October 1999, p. 5265-5274, Vol. 67, No. 10
0019-9567/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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