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FIGURE 3.3
Different evolutionary types of pathogenic E. coli from the perspective of population
dynamics.
against this scenario ( Chattopadhyay et al., 2012 ). Then, the derived nature of
pathogens is obvious from the fact that pathogenic isolates (like Shigella ) tend
to lose or inactivate certain core genes that are evolutionarily original to the
species ( Maurelli, 2007 ). Also, pathoadaptive point mutations are of a derived
nature based on the phylogenetic analysis, with the non-pathogens inclined
to have an original (ancestral) variant of the gene ( Sokurenko et al., 2004 ;
Weissman et al., 2007 ).
A good illustration of the non-pathogen-to-pathogen evolution is pro-
vided by Shigella . Shigella were originally grouped into four separate species
( S. boydii , S. dysenteriae , S. flexneri , S. sonnei ), but later it was determined that
E. coli and Shigella should be considered as a single species ( Jin et al., 2002 ).
Shigella /EIEC genomes are colinear to E. coli with >90% homologous genes
( Jin, et al., 2002 ). While Shigella strains belong to either B1 or ABD phyloge-
netic ECOR groups of E. coli ( Figure 3.1 ), a more detailed phylogenetic analy-
sis showed their independent emergence from separate E. coli lineages ( Pupo
et al., 1997, 2000 ). Genetic studies revealed that it is horizontal transfer of clus-
tered virulence genes with low G+C content compared to the rest of the plasmid
that occurred multiple times, each of which gave birth to a new Shigella clone
( Pupo et al., 2000 ). Analysis of the region encompassing cadA , the antivirulence
gene, from four Shigella species demonstrated distinct genetic rearrangements
in each of the regions, again indicating independent origin of different Shigella lin-
eages ( Day et al., 2001 ). Interestingly, however, Shigella lineages emerged only
within one major phylogenetic group of E. coli , suggesting that the acquisition
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