Takahiro Murata

TL;DR: The complete chromosome sequence of an O157:H7 strain isolated from the Sakai outbreak is reported, and the results of genomic comparison with a benign laboratory strain, K-12 MG1655, are identified, which may represent the fundamental backbone of the E. coli chromosome.

TL;DR: The results clearly demonstrated that the R‐type pyocin is derived from a common ancestral origin with P2 phage and the F‐type from λ phage, and supported by identification of a lysis gene cassette similar to those for bacteriophages.

TL;DR: Prophages, including Shiga toxin-transducing phages, exhibited extensive structural and positional diversity, implying that variation of bacteriophages is a major factor in generating genomic diversity among the O157 lineage.

TL;DR: Although the ETB plasmids are highly heterogeneous in genome size, the fundamental genome organization is well conserved and the size variation of the plasmid is mainly attributed to defined regions which may be hot spots for gene shuffling.

TL;DR: Inspecting of the overall genome organization revealed that the Rts1 genome is composed of four large modules, providing an example of modular evolution of plasmid genomes.