Table 2. Repartition of the genes under probable phenotypical variation.
| total Z2491 | comparison Z2491/Z5463 | comparison Z5463/Z5463PI | comparison Z5463PI/Z5463BC | |
| Central/intermediary/misc metabolisma | 288a | 7a | 3 | 5 |
| Conserved hypothetical | 274 | 9 | 1 | 2* |
| Degradation of large molecules | 34 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Degradation of small molecules | 22 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Energy metabolism | 96 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Information transfer | 233 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| Pathogenicity/Adaptation/Chaperonnes | 96 | 9* | 2 | 2 |
| Phage/IS elements | 186 | 8 | 1 | 0 |
| Regulators | 54 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Surface (IM, OM, secreted…) | 472 | 21* | 5** | 8 |
| Unknown | 237 | 4* | 0 | 0 |
| total | 1992 | 67 | 13 | 20 |
a
one of the gene, aroA, is inserted in Z5463 and its descendants but is absent from Z2491.
*one or ** two genes are submitted to phase variation due to a repeat region in their promoter region.