Molecular Info®

Molecular Info® Copy Right © 2001 Institute of Molecular Development LLC

Complete genome sequence of a multiple drug resistant Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi CT18 J. PARKHILL, G. DOUGAN, K. D. JAMES, N. R. THOMSON, D. PICKARD, J. WAIN, C. CHURCHER, K. L. MUNGALL, S. D. BENTLEY, M. T. G. HOLDEN, M. SEBAIHIA, S. BAKER, D. BASHAM, K. BROOKS, T. CHILLINGWORTH, P. CONNERTON, A. CRONIN, P. DAVIS, R. M. DAVIES, L. DOWD, N. WHITE, J. FARRAR, T. FELTWELL, N. HAMLIN, A. HAQUE, T. T. HIEN, S. HOLROYD, K. JAGELS, A. KROGH, T. S. LARSEN, S. LEATHER, S. MOULE, P. Ó'GAORA, C. PARRY, M. QUAIL, K. RUTHERFORD, M. SIMMONDS, J. SKELTON, K. STEVENS, S. WHITEHEAD & B. G. BARRELL The Nature, October 2001, 413, 848 - 852. Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi (S. typhi) is the aetiological agent of typhoid fever, a serious invasive bacterial disease of humans with an annual global burden of approximately 16 million cases, leading to 600,000 fatalities. Many S. enterica serovars actively invade the mucosal surface of the intestine but are normally contained in healthy individuals by the local immune defence mechanisms. However, S. typhi has evolved the ability to spread to the deeper tissues of humans, including liver, spleen and bone marrow. The 4,809,037-base pair (bp) genome of a S. typhi (CT18) is sequenced, that is resistant to multiple drugs, revealing the presence of hundreds of insertions and deletions compared with the Escherichia coli genome, ranging in size from single genes to large islands. Notably, the genome sequence identifies over two hundred pseudogenes, several corresponding to genes that are known to contribute to virulence in Salmonella typhimurium.