Comparative genomics of Yersinia pestis isolates and vaccine strain EV76 by whole genome microarray

摘要

Background Yersinia pestis is a gram negative bacterial pathogen that causes bubonic and pneumonic plagues. Three pandemics have been recorded in the human history, and the modern plague is thought to origin from Chinese Yunnan province. Yersinia pestis origins from a clone of the enteropthogen Yersinia pseudotuberculosis 1500-20000 years ago, and they share 80% homogeneous genes including the 102Kb pgm loci. However they exhibited a different pathogenic phenotype and virulence. Therefore the 102Kb pgm pathogenicity island is not the sole possession of Yersinia pestis, it can be concluded that missing this island is not the fatal factor for virulence attenuation of EV76.