TY  - JOUR
A1  - Nakagawa, Ichiro
A1  - Kurokawa, Ken
A1  - Yamashita, Atsushi
A1  - Nakata, Masanobu
A1  - Tomiyasu, Yusuke
A1  - Okahashi, Nobuo
A1  - Kawabata, Shigetada
A1  - Yamazaki, Kiyoshi
A1  - Shiba, Tadayoshi
A1  - Yasunaga, Teruo
A1  - Hayashi, Hideo
A1  - Hattori, Masahira
A1  - Hamada, Shigeyuki
T1  - Genome Sequence of an M3 Strain of Streptococcus pyogenes
 Reveals a Large-Scale Genomic Rearrangement in Invasive Strains and New  Insights into Phage Evolution
Y1  - 2003/06/01 
JF  - Genome Research 
JO  - Genome Research 
SP  - 1042 
EP  - 1055 
DO  - 10.1101/gr.1096703 
VL  - 13 
IS  - 6a 
UR  - http://genome.cshlp.org/content/13/6a/1042.abstract 
N2  - Group Astreptococcus (GAS) is a gram-positive bacterial pathogen that  causes various suppurative infections and nonsuppurative sequelae. Since the  late 1980s, streptococcal toxic-shock like syndrome (STSS) and severe invasive  GAS infections have been reported globally. Here we sequenced the genome of  serotype M3 strain SSI-1, isolated from an STSS patient in Japan, and compared  it with those of other GAS strains. The SSI-1 genome is composed of 1,884,275  bp, and 1.7 Mb of the sequence is highly conserved relative to strain SF370  (serotype M1) and MGAS8232 (serotype M18), and almost completely conserved  relative to strain MGAS315 (serotype M3). However, a large genomic  rearrangement has been shown to occur across the replication axis between the  homologous rrn-comX1 regions and between two prophage-coding regions  across the replication axis. Atotal of 1 Mb of chromosomal DNA is inverted  across the replication axis. Interestingly, the recombinations between the  prophage regions are within the phage genes, and the genes encoding  superantigens and mitogenic factors are interchanged between two prophages.  This genomic rearrangement occurs in 65% of clinical isolates (64/94)  collected after 1990, whereas it is found in only 25% of clinical isolates  (7/28) collected before 1985. These observations indicate that streptococcal  phages represent important plasticity regions in the GAS chromosome where  recombination between homologous phage genes can occur and result not only in  new phage derivatives, but also in large chromosomal rearrangements. 
ER  -