McVicker, G ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6967-5968 and Tang, CM, 2016. Deletion of toxin–antitoxin systems in the evolution of Shigella sonnei as a host-adapted pathogen. Nature Microbiology, 2, p. 16204. ISSN 2058-5276
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Abstract
Pathogenic Shigella spp. are the leading cause of bacterial dysentery, with Shigella flexneri and Shigella sonnei accounting for around 90% of cases worldwide. While S. flexneri causes most disease in low-income countries (following ingestion of contaminated food and/or water), S. sonnei predominates in wealthy countries and is mainly spread from person to person. Although both species contain a large virulence plasmid, pINV, that is essential for the organism to cause disease, little is known about its maintenance. Here, using a counterselectable marker within the virulence-encoding region of pINV, we show that the S. sonnei plasmid is less stable than that of S. flexneri, especially at environmental temperatures. GmvAT, a toxin–antitoxin system, is responsible for the difference in stability and is present in pINV from S. flexneri but absent in S. sonnei pINV; GmvT is an acetyltransferase toxin that inhibits protein translation. Loss of GmvAT and a second toxin–antitoxin system, CcdAB, from pINV reduces S. sonnei plasmid stability outside the host, reflecting the host-adapted lifestyle and person-to-person transmission of this species, and hence the striking differences in its epidemiology.
Item Type: | Journal article |
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Publication Title: | Nature Microbiology |
Creators: | McVicker, G. and Tang, C.M. |
Publisher: | Macmillan Publishers Limited |
Date: | 7 November 2016 |
Volume: | 2 |
ISSN: | 2058-5276 |
Identifiers: | Number Type 10.1038/nmicrobiol.2016.204 DOI |
Divisions: | Schools > School of Science and Technology |
Record created by: | Jill Tomkinson |
Date Added: | 13 Jan 2017 11:16 |
Last Modified: | 09 Jun 2017 14:10 |
URI: | https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/29685 |
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