Genome organization and pathogenicity of Corynebacterium diphtheriae C7(-) and PW8 strains.

ABSTRACT: Corynebacterium diphtheriae is the causative agent of diphtheria. In 2003, the complete genomic nucleotide sequence of an isolate (NCTC13129) from a large outbreak in the former Soviet Union was published, in which the presence of 13 putative pathogenicity islands (PAIs) was demonstrated. In contrast, earlier work on diphtheria mainly employed the C7(-) strain for genetic analysis; therefore, current knowledge of the molecular genetics of the bacterium is limited to that strain. However, genomic information on the NCTC13129 strain has scarcely been compared to strain C7(-). Another important C. diphtheriae strain is Park-Williams no. 8 (PW8), which has been the only major strain used in toxoid vaccine production and for which genomic information also is not available. Here, we show by comp

SUBMITTER: Iwaki M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2937438 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature