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Infection and Immunity, May 2003, p. 2775-2786, Vol. 71, No. 5
0019-9567/03/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/IAI.71.5.2775-2786.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Complete Genome Sequence and Comparative Genomics of Shigella flexneri Serotype 2a Strain 2457T{dagger}

J. Wei,1 M. B. Goldberg,2 V. Burland,1 M. M. Venkatesan,3 W. Deng,1 G. Fournier,2 G. F. Mayhew,1 G. Plunkett III,1 D. J. Rose,1 A. Darling,4 B. Mau,4 N. T. Perna,4 S. M. Payne,5 L. J. Runyen-Janecky,5 S. Zhou,6 D. C. Schwartz,1,6 and F. R. Blattner1*

Laboratory of Genetics and Genome Center,1 Animal Health and Biological Sciences and Genome Center,4 Department of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706,6 Infectious Disease Division, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02114,2 Department of Enteric Infections, Division of Communicable Diseases and Immunology, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Silver Spring, Maryland 20910,3 Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712-10955

Received 18 October 2002/ Returned for modification 3 January 2003/ Accepted 18 February 2003

We determined the complete genome sequence of Shigella flexneri serotype 2a strain 2457T (4,599,354 bp). Shigella species cause >1 million deaths per year from dysentery and diarrhea and have a lifestyle that is markedly different from those of closely related bacteria, including Escherichia coli. The genome exhibits the backbone and island mosaic structure of E. coli pathogens, albeit with much less horizontally transferred DNA and lacking 357 genes present in E. coli. The strain is distinctive in its large complement of insertion sequences, with several genomic rearrangements mediated by insertion sequences, 12 cryptic prophages, 372 pseudogenes, and 195 S. flexneri-specific genes. The 2457T genome was also compared with that of a recently sequenced S. flexneri 2a strain, 301. Our data are consistent with Shigella being phylogenetically indistinguishable from E. coli. The S. flexneri-specific regions contain many genes that could encode proteins with roles in virulence. Analysis of these will reveal the genetic basis for aspects of this pathogenic organism's distinctive lifestyle that have yet to be explained.

* Corresponding author: Mailing address: Laboratory of Genetics, University of Wisconsin—Madison, 445 Henry Mall, Madison, WI 53706. Phone: (608) 262-2534. Fax: (608) 263-7459. E-mail: fred{at}genome.wisc.edu.

{dagger} Paper no. 3603 from the Laboratory of Genetics.

Editor: J. T. Barbieri

Infection and Immunity, May 2003, p. 2775-2786, Vol. 71, No. 5
0019-9567/03/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/IAI.71.5.2775-2786.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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