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Structure and genetics of Shigella O antigens

  1. Bin Liu1,2,3,
  2. Yuriy A. Knirel4,
  3. Lu Feng1,5,6,
  4. Andrei V. Perepelov4,
  5. Sof'ya N. Senchenkova4,
  6. Quan Wang1,2,
  7. Peter R. Reeves7,
  8. Lei Wang1,2,3,5,6

Article first published online: 17 APR 2008

DOI: 10.1111/j.1574-6976.2008.00114.x

Issue

FEMS Microbiology Reviews

FEMS Microbiology Reviews

Volume 32, Issue 4, pages 627–653, July 2008

Additional Information

How to Cite

Liu, B., Knirel, Y. A., Feng, L., Perepelov, A. V., Senchenkova, S. N., Wang, Q., Reeves, P. R. and Wang, L. (2008), Structure and genetics of Shigella O antigens. FEMS Microbiology Reviews, 32: 627–653. doi: 10.1111/j.1574-6976.2008.00114.x

Author Information

  1. 1

    TEDA School of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Nankai University, TEDA, Tianjin, China

  2. 2

    Tianjin Research Center for Functional Genomics and Biochip, Tianjin, China

  3. 3

    College of Life Sciences, Nankai University, Tianjin, China

  4. 4

    N.D. Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russian Federation

  5. 5

    Tianjin Key Laboratory of Microbial Functional Genomics, Tianjin, China

  6. 6

    The Engineering and Research Center for Microbial Functional Genomics and Detection Technology, Ministry of Education, China

  7. 7

    School of Molecular and Microbial Biosciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

*Correspondence: Lei Wang, TEDA School of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Nankai University, 23 Hongda Street, TEDA, Tianjin 300457, China. Tel.: +86 22 66229588; fax: +86 22 66229596; e-mail: wanglei@nankai.edu.cn

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 24 APR 2008
  2. Article first published online: 17 APR 2008
  3. Received 4 December 2007; revised 7 March 2008; accepted 13 March 2008.First published online 17 April 2008.
Corrected by:

Structure and genetics of Shigella O antigens

Vol. 34, Issue 4, 606, Article first published online: 20 APR 2010

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Keywords:

  • Shigella;
  • O antigen;
  • O antigen diversity;
  • O antigen gene cluster;
  • structure

Abstract

This review covers the O antigens of the 46 serotypes of Shigella, but those of most Shigella flexneri are variants of one basic structure, leaving 34 Shigella distinct O antigens to review, together with their gene clusters. Several of the structures and gene clusters are reported for the first time and this is the first such group for which structures and DNA sequences have been determined for all O antigens. Shigella strains are in effect Escherichia coli with a specific mode of pathogenicity, and 18 of the 34 O antigens are also found in traditional E. coli. Three are very similar to E. coli O antigens and 13 are unique to Shigella strains. The O antigen of Shigella sonnei is quite atypical for E. coli and is thought to have transferred from Plesiomonas. The other 12 O antigens unique to Shigella strains have structures that are typical of E. coli, but there are considerably more anomalies in their gene clusters, probably reflecting recent modification of the structures. Having the complete set of structures and genes opens the way for experimental studies on the role of this diversity in pathogenicity.

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