Characterization of the Genes of Salmonella typhimurium conferring the penetration of cultured HEp-2 and Chinese hamster cells

The invasion genes from Salmonella typhimurium were identified by the construction of a cosmid library and subcloning genes into a plasmid vector, pGEM-7Z. The 4.65 kb fragment of the invasion-conferring genomic region of the subclone, pSV6235 was sequenced in both direction. The three open reading frames, which were located at downstream of a promoter region, were designated as sir (Salmonella invasion region)A coding for the 36 amino acids, sirB coding for the 132 amino acids and sirC for the 82 amino acids, respectively. Interesingly, the genomic region of pSV6235 was highly homologous to Yersinia enterocolitica genomic DNA for a high pathogenicity island and Salmonella enteritidis insertion element IS1351 and IS200 DNA. These results show that there could be a significant relationship between S. typhimurium, Y. enterocolitica and S. enteritidis with respect to horizontal evolution process and acquisition of virulence determinants by means of transposon, plasmid or bacteriophage.