Bacteria Genomes - STREPTOCOCCUS AGALACTIAE

Streptococcus agalactiae, or group B Streptococcus (GBS), is the leading cause of bacterial sepsis, pneumonia, and meningitis in neonates in the United States and Europe. It is a gram positive obligate pathogenic bacteria and is distinguished from other pathogenic streptococci by the cell wall-associated group B carbohydrate.

While Streptococcus agalactiae usually behaves as a commensal organism that colonises the gastrointestinal or genital tract of 25 to 40% of healthy women, it can cause life-threatening invasive infection in susceptible hosts: newborn infants, pregnant women, and nonpregnant adults with underlying chronic illnesses.

S. agalactiae can cause life-threatening infections in newborns as they pass through the birth canal with the threat continuing for the first three months of life. The bacterium was identified as a pathogen in cows (bovine mastitis) in the 1930s; no one knows how it made the leap to humans. It is considered one of the major causes of economic losses to dairy producers.

The analysis of the genome of S. agalactiae and its comparison with those of other close pathogenic bacteria ( Streptococcus pyogenes, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Streptococcus mutans, Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria monocytogenes) should make it possible to identify new genes of virulence to create new targets for the development of a vaccine.

References:

http://www.addl.purdue.edu/newsletters/2002/spring/samdh.htm
http://www.tigr.org/CMR2/BackGround/gbs.html
Mol Microbiol , 45 (6):1499-513 (2002)
http://www.pasteur.fr/actu/presse/com/dossiers/genomics/genagala.html
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 99(19):12391-12396 (2002)