Plasmids Conferring Pathogenicity to Human

Bacterial Structure
Part 1
Structure of Fimbriae or Pili
Functions of Fimbriae or Pili
Parts of Flagella
Bacterial Movement
Spirochaetal Movement
Gliding Movement
Nucleoid (Nucleus)
Plasmids
Classes of Plasmids
Gene Pickup and Sex Factors
R Plasmids
Plasmids Conferring Pathogenecity to mammals
Col Plasmids
Degradative Plasmids
Mercury Resistance Plasmids
Tumor Inducing Plasmid in Agrobacterium Tumifaciens
Cryptic Plasmids
Staphylococcal Plasmids

Plasmids Conferring Pathogenicity to Human

Plasmids Conferring Pathogenicity to Human -

Enteric diseases are carried not only by Shigella, Salmonella and Vibrio cholerae but also by normally harmless members, e. g. E. coli especially in babies.

It has been estimated that 3-5% of newly-born pigs die in Europe in the first six weeks of life because of diarrhoeal infection, mainly due to E. coli.

Plasmids have been found in several E.coli strains isolated from humans, cattle and pigs.Three types of plasmids have been found.

(i) Enteric plasmids which produce either heat-stable toxins (ST) or both heat-stable and heat-labile (ST and L T) toxins. No plasmid coding for L T alone has been found.

(ii) Hly Plasmids, which code for the production of α-haemolysins, compounds which cause lysis of red blood cells.

( iii) K plasmids, which specify the production of species-specific antigens on the cell surface of E. coli (K88 antigen in pigs, K99 in cattle). The antigens are large filamentous proteins covering the fine pili.

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