Identification and Characterization of Putative Virulent Genes in Streptococcus equi ssp. zooepidemicus

Suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH) was performed with virulent strain ATCC35246 and avirulent strain ST171 to identify novel genes associated with virulence in Streptococcus equi ssp. zooepidemicus (SEZ). There were fourteen genomic regions that only presented in virulent strain ATCC35246. These regions encoded 14 proteins, some of them were homologous to proteins associated with cellular surface structure, molecular synthesis, energy metabolism, regulation, transport systems, and other unknown functions. Primers for 6 particular regions were designed from the already published SEZ sequence. Then, we used PCR to evaluate the distribution and conservation of these 6 DNA fragments in various SEZ strains collected from different sources, regions, groups, and times. The results showed that these 6 DNA fragments were widely distributed in SEZ strains, yet they were not existence in the avirulent strain ST171. Moreover, these fragments could not be detected in other Streptococcus groups.