Escherichia coli 473. Escherichia coli 473

We showed that an arcACBDR operon encoding the arginine deiminase pathway was significantly associated to CTX-M-type ESBL-producing strains of phylo-group A and that its genetic support was mainly plasmidic. To investigate the functional role of this operon, we constructed an isogenic mutant deleted of the arc operon. In vitro and in vivo experiments showed that the arc operon enhanced fitness of the wild type strain in presence of arginine and has a key role in urinary tract infection.