Understanding the virulence of the entero-aggregative E. coli O104:H4 Online publication date: Tue, 05-May-2015
by B. Kesavan; K.V. Srividhya; S. Krishnaswamy; Mugasimangalam Raja; N. Vidya; A.V.S.K. Krishna Mohan
International Journal of Bioinformatics Research and Applications (IJBRA), Vol. 11, No. 3, 2015
Abstract: O104:H4 is a new strain of E. coli that has caused an outbreak in Germany. It was isolated from patients with bloody diarrhoea and Haemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS). BGI (www.genomics.cn) sequenced and assembled this new strain. It was reported to show resistance to a number of drugs that are toxic to other E. coli and causes serious complications during infections, which ultimately lead to death. Multi-drug resistance and high virulence of this strain is thought to be acquired from different sources, by horizontal gene transfer. A total of 38 prophage elements were detected from the new strain by using three computational tools viz., DRAD, Prophage Finder and PHAST. Analysis on these prophage elements shows a number of virulence proteins like Shiga toxin and multi-drug resistance protein encoding genes. The high virulence of the strain could be attributed by the prophage elements acquired from its micro environment.
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