A GENETIC-LOCUS OF ENTEROCYTE EFFACEMENT CONSERVED AMONG DIVERSE ENTEROBACTERIAL PATHOGENS

Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) and enterohemorrhagic E. coli 0157:H7 are intestinal pathogens that profoundly damage the microvill i and subapical cytoskeleton of epithelial cells. Here we report findi ng in EPEC a 35-kbp locus containing several regions implicated in for mation of these lesions. DNA probes throughout this locus hybridize to E. coli O157:H7 and other pathogens of three genera that cause simila r lesions but do not hybridize to avirulent members of the same specie s. The EPEC locus and a different virulence locus of uropathogenic E. coli insert into the E. coli chromosome at the identical site and shar e highly similar sequences near the point of insertion.