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Journal of Bacteriology, May 2009, p. 3392-3402, Vol. 191, No. 10
0021-9193/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.00031-09
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Genetic Variation and Evolution of the Pathogenicity Island of Enterococcus faecalis{triangledown} ,{dagger}

Shonna M. McBride,1 Phillip S. Coburn,2 Arto S. Baghdayan,2 Rob J. L. Willems,3 Maria J. Grande,1,{ddagger} Nathan Shankar,2 and Michael S. Gilmore1*

Schepens Eye Research Institute, Department of Ophthalmology and Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Harvard Medical School, 20 Staniford Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02114,1 Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, P.O. Box 26901, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73126,2 Department of Medical Microbiology, University Medical Center Utrecht, G04.614, P.O. Box 85500, 3508 GA Utrecht, The Netherlands3

Received 12 January 2009/ Accepted 26 February 2009

Enterococcus faecalis is a leading cause of nosocomial infections and is known for its ability to acquire and transfer virulence and antibiotic resistance determinants from other organisms. A 150-kb pathogenicity island (PAI) encoding several genes that contribute to pathogenesis was identified among antibiotic-resistant clinical isolates. In the current study, we examined the structure of the PAI in a collection of isolates from diverse sources in order to gain insight into its genesis and dynamics. Using multilocus sequence typing to assess relatedness at the level of strain background and microarray analysis to identify variations in the PAI, we determined the extent to which structural variations occur within the PAI and also the extent to which these variations occur independently of the chromosome. Our findings provide evidence for a modular gain of defined gene clusters by the PAI. These results support horizontal transfer as the mechanism for accretion of genes into the PAI and highlight a likely role for mobile elements in the evolution of the E. faecalis PAI.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Schepens Eye Research Institute, 20 Staniford Street, Boston, MA 02114. Phone: (617) 912-7448. Fax: (617) 912-0101. E-mail: michael.gilmore{at}schepens.harvard.edu

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 6 March 2009.

{dagger} Supplemental material for this article is available at http://jb.asm.org/.

{ddagger} Present address: Área de Microbiología, Departamento de Ciencias de la Salud, Facultad de Ciencias Experimentales, Universidad de Jaén, Campus Las Lagunillas s/n, 23071-Jaén, Spain.

Journal of Bacteriology, May 2009, p. 3392-3402, Vol. 191, No. 10
0021-9193/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.00031-09
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Semedo-Lemsaddek, T., Barreto-Crespo, M. T., Tenreiro, R. (2009). Occurrence of Putative Pathogenicity Islands in Enterococci from Distinct Species and of Differing Origins. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 75: 7271-7274 [Abstract] [Full Text]  


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