Genome Analysis to Identify Virulence-Related Features Present in an Emerging Enteric Pathogen Escherichia albertii KF1 as Compared to that of the Prototypical Escherichia coli O127:H6 E2348/69

Abstract

Diarrhoea has a high impact on the rate of morbidity and mortality of infants less than five years in developing countries. Among different etiological agents, the most common causal organisms for persistent diarrhoea in children are enteric bacterial genera like Escherichia, Shigella, Salmonella, Klebsiella and Enterobacter. Out of them E. coli is the most dominant and have several pathotypes that are commonly referred as enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC). Apart from the species E. coli, Escherichia albertii KF1 has recently been identified as an emerging enteropathogen associated with infant diarrhoea. In this study we have performed in silico analyses on the genome sequence of this strain using different bioinformatic platforms and tried to identify regions or genes related to virulence which are in common to the prototypical Escherichia coli O127:H6 E2348/69 and uniquely present in it. Both the genomes share 3374 CDS, with some conserved pathogenicity encoded features like the typical enteropathogenic type three secretion system (T3SS) associated with locus of enterocyte effacement (LEE) and non-LEE effectors. In addition, several singletons are also identified in the genome of E. albertii KF1 within eight potential genomic islands (GEIs). This includes genes encoding barrel domain-containing outer membrane with a putative type five secretion system (T5SS), multidrug export proteins (MATE) and a region coding for flagellar synthesis and a large number of transposases and hypothetical proteins of unknown functions. Therefore, the study is very relevant to the complete understanding of the importance of exclusive GEIs and virulence related singletons along with the conserved coding regions to determine the pathogenicity and emergence of E. albertii KF1 as an enteropathogen.