The genome of Shigella dysenteriae strain Sd1617 comparison to representative strains in evaluating pathogenesis.

We sequenced and analyzed Shigella dysenteriae strain Sd1617 serotype 1 that is widely used as model strain for vaccine design, trials and research. A combination of next-generation sequencing platforms and assembly yielded two contigs representing a chromosome size of 4.34 Mb and the large virulence plasmid of 177 kb. This genome sequence is compared with other Shigella genomes in order to understand gene complexity and pathogenic factors.