Transfer region of pO113 from enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli: similarity with R64 and identification of a novel plasmid-encoded autotransporter, EpeA.

Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) is a prominent, food-borne cause of diarrhea, bloody diarrhea, and the hemolytic uremic syndrome in industrialized countries. Most strains of EHEC carry the locus for enterocyte effacement (LEE) pathogenicity island, but a proportion of isolates from patients with severe disease do not carry LEE and very little is known about virulence factors in these organisms. LEE-negative strains of EHEC typically express Shiga toxin 2 and carry a large plasmid that encodes the production of EHEC hemolysin.