Affiliation:
1. Institut für Infektiologie, Zentrum für Molekularbiologie der Entzündung (ZMBE), Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster
2. Institut für Hygiene, Universitätsklinikum Münster, D-48149 Münster
3. Robert-Koch Institut, Bereich Wernigerode, D-38855 Wernigerode, Germany
Abstract
ABSTRACT
Intestinal pathogenic
Escherichia coli
represents a global health problem for mammals, including humans. At present, diarrheagenic
E. coli
bacteria are grouped into seven major pathotypes that differ in their virulence factor profiles, severity of clinical manifestations, and prognosis. In this study, we developed and evaluated a one-step multiplex PCR (MPCR) for the straightforward differential identification of intestinal pathotypes of
E. coli
. The specificity of this novel MPCR was validated by using a subset of reference strains and further confirmed by PCR-independent pheno- and genotypic characterization. Moreover, we tested 246 clinical
E. coli
isolates derived from diarrhea patients from several distinct geographic regions. Interestingly, besides strains belonging to the defined and well-described pathotypes, we identified five unconventional strains expressing intermediate virulence factor profiles. These strains have been further characterized and appear to represent intermediate strains carrying genes and expressing factors associated with enteropathogenic
E. coli
, Shiga toxin-producing
E. coli
, enterotoxigenic
E. coli
, and enteroaggregative
E. coli
alike. These strains represent further examples of the extraordinary plasticity of the
E. coli
genome. Moreover, this implies that the important identification of specific pathotypes has to be based on a broad matrix of indicator genes. In addition, the presence of intermediate strains needs to be accounted for.
Publisher
American Society for Microbiology
Subject
Ecology,Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology,Food Science,Biotechnology
Cited by
174 articles.
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