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Journal of Bacteriology, January 1999, p. 153-160, Vol. 181, No. 1
0021-9193/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Sequence Diversity of Flagellin (fliC)
Alleles in Pathogenic Escherichia coli
Sean D.
Reid,
Robert K.
Selander, and
Thomas S.
Whittam*
Institute of Molecular Evolutionary Genetics
and Department of Biology, Pennsylvania State University,
University Park, Pennsylvania 16802
Received 20 July 1998/Accepted 14 October 1998
To study the molecular evolution of flagellin, the protein subunit
specifying flagellar (H) antigens, the fliC genes from 15 pathogenic strains of Escherichia coli were amplified by
PCR and sequenced. Comparison of fliC sequences of H6 and
H7 strains revealed that alleles have a mosaic structure indicating the
occurrence of past horizontal transfer of DNA segments between strains.
The close similarity of H7 sequences also indicates the exchange of an
entire fliC H7 allele between distant clonal lineages. In
addition, the ratio of silent substitutions to amino acid replacements
suggests that a short segment in the central region of fliC
has been under positive selection in the divergence of H6 and H7
alleles. Phylogenetic analysis demonstrates that the fliC
sequences of O157:H7 and O55:H7 serotypes are nearly identical and
highly divergent from those of E. coli strains expressing
H6 and H2 flagellar antigens. A nonmotile clone of sorbitol-fermenting
O157 has rapidly accumulated multiple mutations in fliC,
presumably as a result of the silencing of flagellin expression.
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: IMEG, Dept.
Biology, 208 Mueller Laboratory, Pennsylvania State University,
University Park, PA 16802. Phone: (814) 863-1970. Fax: (814) 865-9131. E-mail: tsw1{at}psu.edu.
Journal of Bacteriology, January 1999, p. 153-160, Vol. 181, No. 1
0021-9193/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
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