To clarify the genetic determinism of the MALT lymphoma strains, we selected one strain that was representative of the MALT lymphoma cagPAI minus branch and determined its genome sequence. We selected strain B38, which was isolated from a 62-year-old man suffering from MALT lymphoma. It fulfilled various requirements: i) it belonged to the hpEurope phylogenetic branch according to MLST analysis (Suerbaum, personal communication), a property that was consistent with the five Helicobacter genome sequences previously published (26695, J99, HPAG1, P12, and G27); ii) it was genetically transformable; iii) it was plasmid free, and iv) it was capable of colonizing the mouse gastric mucosa. Its vacA status was s2m2 [18].