Dozois C M, Curtiss R
Department of Biology, Washington University, Saint-Louis, MO 63130, USA.
Vet Res. 1999 Mar-Jun;30(2-3):157-79.
Escherichia coli is a highly adaptive bacterial species that is both a member of the commensal intestinal flora and a versatile pathogen associated with numerous types of intestinal and systemic infections in humans and other animals. The spectrum of diseases caused by E. coli is due to the acquisition of specific virulence genes harbored on plasmids, bacteriophages, or within distinct DNA segments termed pathogenicity islands (PAIs) that are absent from the genomes of commensal E. coli strains. PAIs are likely to have been transferred horizontally and may have integrated into the E. coli chromosome through bacteriophage or plasmid integration or transposition. The contribution of intergenic inheritance to the adaptation and evolution of E. coli, types of PAIs associated with different groups of pathogenic E. coli and approaches to identify unique sequence islands (USIs), some of which might confer pathogenicity, in E. coli and other bacteria are presented.
大肠杆菌是一种适应性很强的细菌物种，它既是共生肠道菌群的成员，也是一种多能病原体，与人类和其他动物的多种肠道及全身感染有关。大肠杆菌引起的疾病谱归因于在质粒、噬菌体或称为致病岛（PAIs）的独特DNA片段中获得的特定毒力基因，而共生大肠杆菌菌株的基因组中不存在这些基因。致病岛很可能是通过水平转移获得的，并且可能通过噬菌体或质粒整合或转座作用整合到大肠杆菌染色体中。本文介绍了基因间遗传对大肠杆菌适应性和进化的贡献、与不同致病性大肠杆菌群体相关的致病岛类型，以及在大肠杆菌和其他细菌中识别独特序列岛（USIs）的方法，其中一些独特序列岛可能赋予致病性。
