Clonal diversity and relationships among strains of Yersinia enterocolitica

Abstract

Allelic variation in the chromosomal genome of 81 isolates of Yersinia enterocolitica and single isolates of Yersinia intermedia, Yersinia frederiksenii, Yersinia mollaretii, and Yersinia kristensenii was assessed by analysis of electrophoretically demonstrable polymorphism in 21 genes encoding metabolic enzymes. Eighteen distinctive multilocus genotypes (electrophoretic types [ETs]) were identified. Clustering of the ETs from a matrix of pairwise genetic distances, based on the 21 enzyme loci, confirmed the genetic distinctness of serogroup 3 isolates of Y. intermedia, Y. frederiksenii, Y. mollaretii, and Y. kristensenii and identified another serogroup 3 isolate that was also not a member of Y. enterocolitica. The 13 ETs of Y. enterocolitica clustered into two groups: cluster A, which included eight ETs represented by isolates of serogroups 1; 2; 3; 5,27; and 9, and cluster B, which included four ETs represented by isolates of serogroups 8, 13, and 21. Clones of cluster A were found to be distributed worldwide, but those of cluster B were largely restricted to North America. Isolates of genotypes belonging to cluster B were lethal to mice, whereas those of cluster A were not, suggesting an influence of the chromosomal background on the virulence of Y. enterocolitica.