Chaperone-Usher Fimbriae of Escherichia coli
Figure 5
Distribution of E. coli fimbrial gene clusters in an evolutionary context.
Left: The phylogeny of the Escherichia strains is displayed as inferred using the Neighbour Joining method on the concatenated nucleotide sequence of 7 housekeeping genes (∼9 kb). E. coli strains are colour-coded according to phylogroup (A, B1, B2, D and E). To determine CU fimbrial gene cluster ancestry, the Salmonella pan-genome was investigated for the presence of Escherichia fimbrial types. The scale indicates the number of substitutions per nucleotide. Right: The names of fimbrial types are displayed along the top of a fimbrial gene cluster matrix, with the names of PAI or plasmid-born CU fimbrial gene clusters highlighted in blue and red, respectively. Dark blue and light blue cells represent intact and disrupted CU fimbrial gene clusters, respectively. The heterogenous distribution of CU fimbrial types identified in our dataset suggests substantial acquisition and loss of CU fimbrial gene clusters during the evolution of the Escherichia genus. Depending on their distribution, CU fimbrial types can be classified as core-associated, clade-specific, or sporadic. 1CFT073 possesses two copies of the P fimbriae operon.