VibrioBase: A Model for Next-Generation Genome and Annotation Database Development

Figure 3

The profiling of virulence genes of 134 V. cholerae strains using PathoProT. The heat map was generated by using the thresholds of 50% completeness and 50% identity. It gave an overview of the clustered strains having closely related sets of virulence genes, sorted according to the level of similarities across the strains and genes. The flagella formation gene clusters (flgB-flgC-flgD-flgF-flgG-flgH-flgI-flgK-flgL) are the largest conserved virulence gene group among the V. cholera strains. The flg gene cluster works with other virulence gene clusters such as fla gene cluster (flaA-flaB-flaC-flaD-flaE) [17] and  fli gene cluster (fliH-fliJ-fliL-fliM-fliN-flnO-fliP-fliQ-fliR-fliS) to form the flagella organelles on the bacteria [18], which is one of the common characteristics among all cholerae strains.