Multiple inverted DNA repeats of Bacteroides fragilis that control polysaccharide antigenic variation are similar to the hin region inverted repeats of Salmonella typhimurium.

The important opportunistic pathogen Bacteroides fragilis is a strictly anaerobic Gram-negative bacterium and a member of the normal resident human gastrointestinal microbiota. Our earlier studies indicated that there is considerable within-strain variation in polysaccharide expression, as detected by mAb labelling. Analysis of the genome sequence has revealed multiple invertible DNA regions, designated fragilis invertible (fin) regions, seven of which are upstream of polysaccharide biosynthesis loci and are approximately 226 bp in size.