STRUCTURAL ORGANIZATION OF PORIN GENES (INTACT AND DISRUPTED BY IS 100) BORDERING THE PGM LOCUS OF THE YERSINIA PESTIS AND YERSINIA PSEUDOTUBERCULOSIS STRAINS.

In highly virulent strains of Yersinia pestis, the porin gene border- ing pigmentation (pgm) locus was observed to be usually broken by IS100. In this case, the pgm locus that carries virulence genes (high pathogenicity island) and biofilm formation genes (hms operon) is flanked by direct copies of IS100, which can cause its destabilization. We studied the prevalence of the intact and dis- rupted porin genes among 240 strains of Y.