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Infection and Immunity, December 2001, p. 7588-7595, Vol. 69, No. 12
0019-9567/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/IAI.69.12.7588-7595.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Characterization of a Shiga Toxin-Encoding Temperate Bacteriophage of Shigella sonnei

Eckhard Strauch,1 Rudi Lurz,2 and Lothar Beutin1,*

Robert Koch-Institut, D-13353 Berlin,1 and Max-Planck-Institut für Molekulare Genetik, D-14195 Berlin,2 Germany

Received 23 July 2001/Returned for modification 16 August 2001/Accepted 11 September 2001

A Shiga toxin (Stx)-encoding temperate bacteriophage of Shigella sonnei strain CB7888 was investigated for its morphology, DNA similarity, host range, and lysogenization in Shigella and Escherichia coli strains. Phage 7888 formed plaques on a broad spectrum of Shigella strains belonging to different species and serotypes, including Stx-producing Shigella dysenteriae type 1. With E. coli, only strains with rough lipopolysaccharide were sensitive to this phage. The phage integrated into the genome of nontoxigenic S. sonnei and laboratory E. coli K-12 strains, which became Stx positive upon lysogenization. Moreover, phage 7888 is capable of transducing chromosomal genes in E. coli K-12. The relationships of phage 7888 with the E. coli Stx1-producing phage H-19B and the E. coli Stx2-producing phage 933W were investigated by DNA cross-hybridization of phage genomes and by nucleotide sequencing of an 8,053-bp DNA region of the phage 7888 genome flanking the stx genes. By these methods, a high similarity was found between phages 7888 and 933W. Much less similarity was found between phages H-19B and 7888. As in the other Stx phages, a regulatory region involved in Q-dependent expression is found upstream of stxA and stxB (stx gene) in phage 7888. The morphology of phage 7888 was similar to that of phage 933W, which shows a hexagonal head and a short tail. Our findings demonstrate that stx genes are naturally transferable and are expressed in strains of S. sonnei, which points to the continuous evolution of human-pathogenic Shigella by horizontal gene transfer.


* Corresponding author. Mailing address: (P13) Division of Emerging Bacterial Pathogens, Robert Koch-Institut, Nordufer 20, D-13353 Berlin, Germany. Phone: 49 (30) 45472484. Fax: 49 (30) 45472673. E-mail: BeutinL{at}rki.de.


Infection and Immunity, December 2001, p. 7588-7595, Vol. 69, No. 12
0019-9567/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/IAI.69.12.7588-7595.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.



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