Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2010,107(7):3163–3168.PubMedCrossRef

45. Waidner B, Specht M, Dempwolff F, Haeberer K, Schaetzle S, Speth V, Kist M, Graumann PL: A novel system of cytoskeletal elements in the human pathogen helicobacter pylori . PLoS Pathog 2009,5(11):e1000669.PubMedCrossRef Competing interests There are no financial or non-financial competing interests concerning this publication. The article processing charge was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Albert Ludwigs University Freiburg in the funding programme Open Access Publishing. The University does not gain any financially from this publication. Authors’ contributions FD generated genetic constructs and strains, performed most image acquisitions, evaluated data and helped writing the manuscript. HW generated genetic constructs and strains, and performed several ABT-263 cost microscopy experiments. FD and HW performed growth experiments. MS constructed

strains concerning the divIb mutation and performed the related experiments. PLG conceived of the study and wrote the manuscript. PLG, FD, HW and MS evaluated data. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.”
“Background Originally described as β-hemolytic streptococci isolated from dogs and cows that possessed the Lancefield group G antigen [1], Streptococcus canis has subsequently been isolated from a variety of animal sources including cats, rats, rabbits, minks, foxes, a Japanese raccoon dog, and humans [2–4]. mTOR inhibitor The species is an important opportunistic pathogen of cats and dogs infecting a wide range of tissues such as the central nervous system, respiratory tract, genitourinary system, blood, skin, Benzatropine bones, cardiovascular system, and abdomen [1, 4–6]. Infection can cause serious invasive disease, such as streptococcal toxic shock syndrome (STSS), necrotizing fasciitis (NF), septicemia, pneumonia, and meningitis, with numerous reports of fatal infection [5, 7–9], whereas in cows S. canis can cause mastitis [10–12]. Of concern are the accumulating reports of human infection (including numerous

cases of dog to human transmission) [13–16], with clinical manifestations similar to those seen in cats and dogs. For example, descriptions of human cases include soft tissue infection, bacteremia, urinary infection, bone infection, pneumonia, and two reports of death from sepsis [13]. Although the phylogeny of the species is not completely see more resolved, a general consensus from the literature shows S. canis to be closely related to Streptococcus dysgalactiae subsp. dysgalactiae, Streptococcus dysgalactiae subsp. equisimilis, and Streptococcus pyogenes[2, 17–21]. S. canis and S. dysgalactiae subsp. equisimilis are both β-hemolytic streptococci that share the same Lancefield group G antigen. Consequently, by the Lancefield system they are indistinguishable, and have traditionally only been classified as group G streptococci (GGS) from either animal (S. canis) or human (S.