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Pathogenicity Islands (PAIs) are a distinct class of genomic islands which are acquired by horizontal transfer.
PAIs are incorporated in the genome of pathogenic microorganisms but are usually absent from genomes of nonpathogenic organisms of the same or closely related species. PAIs occupy relatively large genomic regions ranging from 10- 200 kb and encode genes which contribute to the virulence of the respecitive pathogen. Typical examples are for example adherence factors, toxins, iron uptake systems, invasion factors and secretion systems.
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