Many virulence and resistance genes in pathogenic E. coli are carried on plasmids.
We sequenced plasmids from 26 Shiga toxin-producing and non-producing E. coli strains.
We identified 39 plasmids that carried various virulence and putative virulence genes.
We identified 8 plasmids that carried resistance to various antibiotics and some also had resistance genes for heavy metals.