Distribution of the ymoA and ystA genes and enterotoxins Yst production by Yersinia enterocolitica strains isolated from humans and pigs

Abstract

AbstractYersinia (Y.) enterocoliticais the third etiological agent of human diarrhea in terms of the number of confirmed clinical cases.One of the important virulence markers is theystgene which encodes the production of enterotoxins Yst (Yersiniastable toxins). However, not all strains withystgenes produce enterotoxins, what seems to be caused by theymoAgene encoding the production of the YmoA protein inhibiting the expression of various genes. The purpose of our study was to evaluate the distribution of theymoAandystAgenes and Yst production byY. enterocoliticaisolated from humans and pigs. All the studied strains obtained from pigs had theystAgene which indicates that they belong to the group of strains commonly regarded as pathogenic, but the ability to produce YstA was detected in only 14 out of 96 examined strains. The fragments ofystAgene were also detected in allY.enterocoliticastrains isolated from human cases of diarrhea. Amplification of a fragment of theymoAgene was detected in all the studied strains, both from humans and pigs, based on the presence of a 330 bp band. Thus no correlation was identified between the occurrence of theymoAandystAgenes and the production of a specific type of enterotoxin.