Sequence of Escherichia coli O150 O-antigen Gene Cluster and Identification of Rhamnose Pathway Genes
大肠杆菌O150 O-抗原基因簇的破译和dTDP-鼠李糖合成酶基因的鉴定

The Escherichia coli O150 O_antigen gene cluster was sequenced. It contains the genes for biosynthesis of nucleotide sugars dTDP_rhamnose, as well as genes for O unit flippase( wzx ), O_antigen polymerase( wzy ) and potential transferase genes. By polymerase chain reaction against representative stains for the 166 E.coli and 43 Shigella O serogroups, we identified 5 genes that are highly specific to E.coli O150 This work provides the basis for a sensitive test for the rapid detection of E.coli O150 Phylogenetic trees for the rmlB, rmlD, rmlA, and rmlC genes was generated, and we found that these genes are typical E.coli genes and may have been involved in recombination events between O_antigen gene clusters.