Virulent Shigella dysenteriae type 4 serotype

Shigella dysenteriae strain 1012. This serotype 4 strain was isolated in Bangladesh and provided by Maj. Carl Brinkley (Walter Reed Army Institute of Research). This strain is representative of the type 4 group of S. dysenteriae that is becoming more prevalent in human infections. This shift is towards the type 2 and type 4 serotypes, which were not previously associated with outbreaks, and away from the type 1 serotype, which was implicated in widespread epidemics in Asia, Central America, and Africa. Pathogenicity has been confirmed in human challenge experiments and strain 1012 has been shown to be one of the most virulent strains identified by WRAIR/NMRC to date. This strain contains multiple plasmids thought to be involved in virulence. Genome sequencing included two libraries - a small insert library (4-5 kb) and a large insert library (10-12 kb) from which 22,016 and 44,654 reads were sequenced, respectively.