Umeå University Medical Dissertations

.............................................................................................................................. 7 INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................................... 8 Streptococcus agalactiae ............................................................................................ 8 S. agalactiae diseases......................................................................................................... 8 S. agalactiae colonization, transmission, risk factors and prevention efforts.................... 9 S. agalactiae serotype distribution................................................................................... 11 S. agalactiae genome sequence........................................................................................ 12 Major virulence factors .................................................................................................... 13 Horizontal gene transfer ............................................................................................ 18 Mobile genetic elements................................................................................................... 19 Insertion sequences .......................................................................................................... 19 Group II intron ................................................................................................................. 21 Horizontal gene transfer in S. agalactiae ......................................................................... 24 Insertion sequences in S. agalactiae ................................................................................ 25 Group II intron identified in S. agalactiae ....................................................................... 27 Molecular epidemiology ........................................................................................... 27 Conventional phenotypic typing methods........................................................................ 29 Genotypic strain typing .................................................................................................... 30 Definitions .......................................................................................................................... 36