show Abstracthide Abstract<i><B>Escherichia coli</i> strain UTI89</B>. This strain (UTI89) is a uropathogenic strain isolated from a woman with uncomplicated cystitis (bladder inflammation) that has been demonstrated to cause cystitis in a murine urinary tract infection model. The genome of UTI89 showed 4 pathogenicity islands. A plasmid was found that was similar to the F plasmid but which also contained virulence genes. Comparison of a set of orthologs from this organism with other <i>E. coli</i> strains showed positive selection on some genes, including those for iron acquisition. Comparison with additional sequences (found in Accession Numbers DQ389000:DQ389068 and DQ440980:DQ441250) of a subset of genes from a number of isolates from patients with UTI infections and isolates from healthy individuals showed positive selection of <i>fepE</i> and <i>amiA<i> genes and some weakly positive selection for <i>ompC</i>.