Identification of different regions among strains of Yersinia pestis by suppression subtractive hybridization

Yersinia pestis, the causative agent of bubonic and pneumonic plague, has been classified into four biovars: Antiqua, Mediaevalis, Orientalis and Microtus. Although the entire genome sequences of three Y. pestis strains, CO92, KIM and 91001, of biovar Orientalis, Mediaevalis and Microtus, respectively, have been decoded, the genome sequence of the biovar Antiqua strain is unknown. In an initial effort to find Antiqua-specific sequences, suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH) was performed and four different regions (DFRs) were identified. Among the four DFRs, only DFR4 was specific to the tester (strain 49006, biovar Antiqua). PCR demonstrated that DFR4 was present only in 57 of 60 Antiqua strains from the Marmota baibacina–Spermophilus undulates plague focus in the Tianshan Mountains (focus B) and in three strains of Y. pseudotuberculosis (serotypes I and II), showing that not all Antiqua strains had DFR4. Five DFR profiles were identified based on the presence or absence of these four DFRs in 636 strains of Y. pestis from 10 plague foci in China.