Shiga-toxin producing (STEC) strains possess a large accessory genome composed of virulence genes existing in multiple allelic variants, which sometimes segregate with specific STEC subpopulations. of the coevolution of the LEE and OI-122, reflecting the occurrence of their acquisition through a single event. The HReVAP analysis represents a sensitive tool for studying the evolution of LEE-positive STEC. (STEC) cause a wide range of symptoms including uncomplicated diarrhea, hemorrhagic colitis, and the life-threatening hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) (Caprioli et al., 2005). The main virulence feature of STEC is the ability to produce Shiga-toxins (Stx), which interfere with the protein synthesis in the target cells, eventually causing their death (O’Brien and Holmes, 1987). The capacity to produce Stx is acquired through infection with bacteriophages conveying the genes, which can remain stably integrated into the bacterial chromosome (O’Brien et al., 1984). In spite of the striking biological effect exerted by the Stx, their sole production seems not to be sufficient for causing the disease, at least the most severe forms. As a matter of fact, only a few STEC serogroups are usually isolated from human cases of severe disease (Nataro and Kaper, 1998; Karmali et al., 2003), which share the presence in the genome of mobile genetic elements (MGEs) encoding robust machineries for the colonization of the host gut (McDaniel and Kaper, 1997; Paton et al., 2001; Morabito et al., 2003; Imamovic et al., 2010; Michelacci et al., 2013). Three Pathogenicity Islands (PAIs) have been described in the genome of such STEC serogroups: the (LEE) (McDaniel and Kaper, 1997), the OI-122 (Karmali et al., 2003; Morabito et al., 2003), and the OI-57 (Imamovic et al., 2010). The LEE locus governs the ability to induce the typical attachment and effacement (A/E) lesion on the enterocyte. It encodes a type three secretion system, effectors subverting the cell functions related with the cytoskeleton assembly and maintenance, and factors mediating the intimate adhesion of the bacterium to the enterocyte, including the adhesin intimin (McDaniel and Kaper, 1997). The other two PAIs carry genes whose products are also involved in the mechanism of colonization, such as Efa1/LifA, encoded by a gene present Rauwolscine in the OI-122 (Morabito et al., 2003), and AdfO (Ho et al., 2008), whose genetic determinant is conveyed by the OI-57 (Imamovic et al., Rauwolscine 2010). During the last decades different authors deployed schemes for the classification of the different STEC types (Griffin and Tauxe, 1991; Nataro and Kaper, 1998; Karmali et al., 2003). One of these Mouse monoclonal to CD45.4AA9 reacts with CD45, a 180-220 kDa leukocyte common antigen (LCA). CD45 antigen is expressed at high levels on all hematopoietic cells including T and B lymphocytes, monocytes, granulocytes, NK cells and dendritic cells, but is not expressed on non-hematopoietic cells. CD45 has also been reported to react weakly with mature blood erythrocytes and platelets. CD45 is a protein tyrosine phosphatase receptor that is critically important for T and B cell antigen receptor-mediated activation schemes groups the STEC strains based on the serogroup, relative incidence of human Rauwolscine infections, ability to cause severe diseases, association with outbreaks and presence of virulence-associated MGEs in the genome (Karmali et al., 2003). According to this classification, STEC are divided into seropathotypes (SPTs), identified with letters from A to E in a decreasing rank of pathogenicity. SPT A comprises STEC O157, while SPT B includes the STEC belonging to serogroups different from O157 but causing both sporadic cases and outbreaks of HUS, namely O26, O103, O111, O145, and O121. SPTs A and B share the presence of the LEE, OI-57, and OI-122 PAIs in their genome. The SPT C includes a number of STEC serogroups, including O113 and O91, which apparently do not harbor the LEE locus but are sporadically isolated from severe infections. Rauwolscine Finally, STEC included in the SPTs D and E have rarely or never been associated with human disease respectively (Karmali et al., 2003). For the last three SPTs the information on the presence and integrity of the three PAIs are scanty. The complexity of the STEC virulome is an important source of strain genomic variability, which is further augmented by the existence of multiple allelic variants of the virulence genes. Some of the subtypes of have been significantly associated with the most severe infection (Friedrich et al., 2002), while some other subtypes of both and seemed to be primarily associated with a milder course of the disease or confined to animal hosts (Friedrich et al., 2002; Bielaszewska et al., 2006; Persson et al., 2007; Scheutz.