Among 75 urosepsis isolates of Escherichia coli, 29 virulence factor (VF) genes were detected by use of a novel polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay. Compared with probe hybridization, the PCR assay's specificity was 100% and sensitivity 97.1%. fyuA (yersiniabactin: overall prevalence, 93%), traT (serum resistance, 68%), and a pathogenicity-associated island marker (71%) occurred in most strai...

The bacterial strain M5al is a model strain for studying the molecular genetics of N2-fixation and molecular engineering of microbial production of platform chemicals 1,3-propanediol and 2,3-butanediol. Here, we present the complete genome sequence of the strain M5al, which belongs to a novel species closely related to Klebsiella michiganensis. M5al secretes plant cell wall-degrading enzymes an...

Yersiniabactin (Ybt) is a mixed nonribosomal peptide-polyketide natural product natively produced by the pathogen Yersinia pestis. The compound enables iron scavenging capabilities upon host infection and is biosynthesized by a nonribosomal peptide synthetase featuring a polyketide synthase module. This pathway has been engineered for expression and biosynthesis using Escherichia coli as a hete...

The pigmentation (pgm) locus is a large unstable area of the Yersinia pestis chromosome composed of a segment of iron acquisition (HPI) linked to a pigmentation segment. In this work we examined the mobility of HPI and the pigmentation segment in three Y. pestis isolates using successive subcultures on Congo red agar (CRA) plates. Strain P. CE 882 was shown to be highly stable while strains P. ...

Fifty-five isolates of Escherichia coli from septicaemic neonatal foals were used to validate five real-time pcr assays targeting different known virulence factor genes: curli fibre (csgD), ferric hydroxamate uptake (fhuA), type 1A pilin (fimA), aerobactin (lutA) and yersiniabactin (fyuA). A pcr assay targeting a universal sequence of the bacterial 16S rrna gene served as quality control. The p...