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Infection and Immunity, November 2003, p. 6307-6319, Vol. 71, No. 11
0019-9567/03/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/IAI.71.11.6307-6319.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Transfer Region of pO113 from Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli: Similarity with R64 and Identification of a Novel Plasmid-Encoded Autotransporter, EpeA

Denisse L. Leyton, Joan Sloan, Rebecca E. Hill, Steven Doughty, and Elizabeth L. Hartland*

Bacterial Pathogenesis Research Group, Department of Microbiology, School of Biomedical Sciences, Monash University, Clayton 3800, Victoria, Australia

Received 3 April 2003/ Returned for modification 20 May 2003/ Accepted 15 July 2003

Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) is a prominent, food-borne cause of diarrhea, bloody diarrhea, and the hemolytic uremic syndrome in industrialized countries. Most strains of EHEC carry the locus for enterocyte effacement (LEE) pathogenicity island, but a proportion of isolates from patients with severe disease do not carry LEE and very little is known about virulence factors in these organisms. LEE-negative strains of EHEC typically express Shiga toxin 2 and carry a large plasmid that encodes the production of EHEC hemolysin. In this study, we determined the nucleotide sequence of the transfer region of pO113, the large hemolysin plasmid from LEE-negative EHEC O113:H21 (EH41). This 63.9-kb region showed a high degree of similarity with the transfer region of R64, and pO113 was capable of self-transmission at low frequencies. Unlike R64 and the related dot/icm system of Legionella pneumophila, however, pO113 was unable to mobilize RSF1010. In addition, the pO113 transfer region encoded a novel high-molecular-weight serine protease autotransporter of Enterobacteriaceae (SPATE) protein, termed EpeA. Like other SPATEs, EpeA exhibited protease activity and mucinase activity, but expression was not associated with a cytopathic effect on epithelial cells. Analysis of a second high-molecular-weight secreted protein revealed that pO113 also encodes EspP, a cytopathic SPATE identified previously in EHEC O157:H7. The nucleotide sequences encoding the predicted ß-domains of espP and epeA were identical and also shared significant homology with a third SPATE protein, EspI. Both espP and epeA were detected in several LEE-negative clinical isolates of EHEC and thus may contribute to the pathogenesis of this subset of EHEC.


* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Microbiology, Monash University, Clayton 3800, Victoria, Australia. Phone: (61) 3 9905 4323. Fax: (61) 3 9905 4811. E-mail: Liz.Hartland{at}med.monash.edu.au.

Editor: A. D. O'Brien


Infection and Immunity, November 2003, p. 6307-6319, Vol. 71, No. 11
0019-9567/03/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/IAI.71.11.6307-6319.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.




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