1887

Journal of Medical Microbiology logo

Volume 59, Issue 1

Allelic variability of critical virulence genes (, and ) in typical and atypical enteropathogenic in Peruvian children Free

Abstract

Enteropathogenic (EPEC) is a leading cause of infantile diarrhoea in developing countries. The aim of this study was to describe the allelic diversity of critical EPEC virulence genes and their association with clinical characteristics. One hundred and twenty EPEC strains isolated from a cohort diarrhoea study in Peruvian children were characterized for the allele type of (intimin), (bundlin pilin protein of bundle-forming pilus) and (plasmid encoded regulator) genes by PCR-RFLP. Atypical EPEC strains (+, −) were the most common pathotype in diarrhoea (54/74, 73 %) and control samples from children without diarrhoea (40/46, 87 %). Overall, there were 13 alleles; the most common were beta (34/120, 28 %), theta (24/120, 20 %), kappa (14/120, 12 %) and mu (8/120, 7 %). There were five alleles; the most common were beta1/7 (10/26), alpha3 (7/26) and beta5 (3/26). There were three alleles: beta (8/16), alpha (7/16) and gamma (1/16). The strains belonged to 36 distinct serogroups; O55 was the most frequent. The gamma-intimin allele was more frequently found in diarrhoea episodes of longer duration (>7 days) than those of shorter duration (3/26, 12 % vs 0/48, 0 %, <0.05). The kappa-intimin allele had the highest clinical severity score in comparison with other alleles (<0.05). In Peruvian children, the virulence genes of EPEC strains are highly variable. Further studies are needed to evaluate additional virulence markers to determine whether relationships exist between specific variants and clinical features of disease.

  • Received:
  • Accepted:
  • Published Online:
Keyword(s): AE, Attaching and effacing , Bfp, bundle-forming pilus , EAF, Escherichia coli adherence factor , EPEC, enteropathogenic E. coli , LA, localized adherence , LEE, locus of enterocyte effacement and Per, plasmid-encoding regulator
SGM
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/jmm.0.013706-0
2010-01-01
2024-04-16
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/jmm/59/1/25.html?itemId=/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/jmm.0.013706-0&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. Afset J. E., Bergh K., Bevanger L. 2003; High prevalence of atypical enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) in Norwegian children with diarrhoea. J Med Microbiol 52:1015–1019 [CrossRef]
     [Google Scholar]
  2. Afset J. E., Bevanger L., Romundstad P., Bergh K. 2004; Association of atypical enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) with prolonged diarrhoea. J Med Microbiol 53:1137–1144 [CrossRef]
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Afset J. E., Bruant G., Brousseau R., Harel J., Anderssen E., Bevanger L., Bergh K. 2006; Identification of virulence genes linked with diarrhea due to atypical enteropathogenic Escherichia coli by DNA microarray analysis and PCR. J Clin Microbiol 44:3703–3711 [CrossRef]
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Bieber D., Ramer S. W., Wu C.-Y., Murray W. J., Tobe T., Fernandez R., Schoolnik G. K. 1998; Type IV pili, transient bacterial aggregates, and virulence of enteropathogenic Escherichia coli . Science 280:2114–2118 [CrossRef]
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Blanco M., Blanco J. E., Dahbi G., Alonso M. P., Mora A., Coira M. A., Madrid C., Juarez A., Bernardez M. I. other authors 2006a; Identification of two new intimin types in atypical enteropathogenic Escherichia coli . Int Microbiol 9:103–110
     [Google Scholar]
  6. Blanco M., Blanco J. E., Dahbi G., Mora A., Alonso M. P., Varela G., Gadea M. P., Schelotto F., Gonzalez E. A., Blanco J. 2006b; Typing of intimin ( eae ) genes from enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) isolated from children with diarrhoea in Montevideo, Uruguay: identification of two novel intimin variants(μB and Ξ R/ β 2B). J Med Microbiol 55:1165–1174 [CrossRef]
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Dulguer M. V., Fabbricotti S. H., Bando S. Y., Moreira-Filho C. A., Fagundes-Neto U., Scaletsky I. C. 2003; Atypical enteropathogenic Escherichia coli strains: phenotypic and genetic profiling reveals a strong association between enteroaggregative E. coli heat-stable enterotoxin and diarrhea. J Infect Dis 188:1685–1694 [CrossRef]
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Fitzhenry R. J., Reece S., Trabulsi L. R., Heuschkel R., Murch S., Thomson M., Frankel G., Phillips A. D. 2002; Tissue tropism of enteropathogenic Escherichia coli strains belonging to the O55 serogroup. Infect Immun 70:4362–4368 [CrossRef]
     [Google Scholar]
  9. Fitzhenry R. J., Stevens M. P., Jenkins C., Wallis T. S., Heuschkel R., Murch S., Thomson M., Frankel G., Phillips A. D. 2003; Human intestinal tissue tropism of intimin epsilon O103 Escherichia coli . FEMS Microbiol Lett 218:311–316 [CrossRef]
     [Google Scholar]
  10. Garrido P., Blanco M., Moreno-Paz M., Briones C., Dahbi G., Blanco J., Blanco J., Parro V. 2006; STEC–EPEC oligonucleotide microarray: a new tool for typing genetic variants of the LEE pathogenicity island of human and animal shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) and enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC) strains. Clin Chem 52:192–201
     [Google Scholar]
  11. Giron J. A., Ho A. S., Schoolnik G. K. 1991; An inducible bundle-forming pilus of enteropathogenic Escherichia coli . Science 254:710–713 [CrossRef]
     [Google Scholar]
  12. Guion C. E., Ochoa T. J., Walker C. M., Barletta F., Cleary T. G. 2008; Detection of diarrheagenic Escherichia coli by use of melting-curve analysis and real-time multiplex PCR. J Clin Microbiol 46:1752–1757 [CrossRef]
     [Google Scholar]
  13. Hedberg C. W., Savarino S. J., Besser J. M., Paulus C. J., Thelen V. M., Myers L. J., Cameron D. N., Barrett T. J., Kaper J. B., Osterholm M. T. 1997; An outbreak of foodborne illness caused by Escherichia coli O39: NM, an agent not fitting into the existing scheme for classifying diarrheogenic E. coli . J Infect Dis 176:1625–1628 [CrossRef]
     [Google Scholar]
  14. Ito K., Iida M., Yamazaki M., Moriya K., Moroishi S., Yatsuyanagi J., Kurazono T., Hiruta N., Ratchtrachenchai O.-A. 2007; Intimin types determined by heteroduplex mobility assay of intimin gene ( eae )-positive Escherichia coli strains. J Clin Microbiol 45:1038–1041 [CrossRef]
     [Google Scholar]
  15. Jenkins C., Lawson A. J., Cheasty T., Willshaw G. A., Wright P., Dougan G., Frankel G., Smith H. R. 2003; Subtyping intimin genes from enteropathogenic Escherichia coli associated with outbreaks and sporadic cases in the United Kingdom and Eire. Mol Cell Probes 17:149–156 [CrossRef]
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Jenkins C., Smith H. R., Lawson A. J., Willshaw G. A., Cheasty T., Wheeler J. G., Tompkins D. S. 2006; Serotypes, intimin subtypes, and antimicrobial resistance patterns of atypical enteropathogenic Escherichia coli isolated in England from 1993 to 1996. Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis 25:19–24 [CrossRef]
     [Google Scholar]
  17. Jerse A. E., Yu J., Tall B. D., Kaper J. B. 1990; A genetic locus of enteropathogenic Escherichia coli necessary for the production of attaching and effacing lesions on tissue culture cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 87:7839–7843 [CrossRef]
     [Google Scholar]
  18. Knutton S., Shaw R., Phillips A. D., Smith H. R., Willshaw G. A., Watson P., Price E. 2001; Phenotypic and genetic analysis of diarrhea-associated Escherichia coli isolated from children in the United Kingdom. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr 33:32–40 [CrossRef]
     [Google Scholar]
  19. Kozub-Witkowski E., Krause G., Frankel G., Kramer D., Appel B., Beutin L. 2008; Serotypes and virutypes of enteropathogenic and enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli strains from stool samples of children with diarrhoea in Germany. J Appl Microbiol 104:403–410
     [Google Scholar]
  20. Lacher D. W., Steinsland H., Whittam T. S. 2006; Allelic subtyping of the intimin locus ( eae ) of pathogenic Escherichia coli by fluorescent RFLP. FEMS Microbiol Lett 261:80–87 [CrossRef]
     [Google Scholar]
  21. Lacher D. W., Steinsland H., Blank T. E., Donnenberg M. S., Whittam T. S. 2007; Molecular evolution of typical enteropathogenic Escherichia coli : clonal analysis by multilocus sequence typing and virulence gene allelic profiling. J Bacteriol 189:342–350 [CrossRef]
     [Google Scholar]
  22. Machado J., Grimont F., Grimont P. A. 2000; Identification of Escherichia coli flagellar types by restriction of the amplified fliC gene. Res Microbiol 151:535–546 [CrossRef]
     [Google Scholar]
  23. Murray P. R. 2007 Manual of Clinical Microbiology , 9th edn. Washington, DC: American Society for Microbiology;
     [Google Scholar]
  24. Ochoa T. J., Barletta F., Contreras C., Mercado E. 2008; New insights into the epidemiology of enteropathogenic Escherichia coli infection. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg 102:852–856 [CrossRef]
     [Google Scholar]
  25. Ochoa T. J., Ecker L., Barletta F., Mispireta M., Gil A., Contreras C., Molina M., Amemiya I., Verastegui H. other authors 2009; Age-related susceptibility to infection with diarrheagenic E. coli in infants from peri-urban areas of Lima, Peru. Clin Infect Dis 49:1694–1702 [CrossRef]
     [Google Scholar]
  26. Orskov I., Orskov F., Jann B., Jann K. 1977; Serology, chemistry, and genetics of O and K antigens of Escherichia coli . Bacteriol Rev 41:667–710
     [Google Scholar]
  27. Ramachandran V., Brett K., Hornitzky M. A., Dowton M., Bettelheim K. A., Walker M. J., Djordjevic S. P. 2003; Distribution of intimin subtypes among Escherichia coli isolates from ruminant and human sources. J Clin Microbiol 41:5022–5032 [CrossRef]
     [Google Scholar]
  28. Ruuska T., Vesikari T. 1990; Rotavirus disease in Finnish children: use of numerical scores for clinical severity of diarrhoeal episodes. Scand J Infect Dis 22:259–267 [CrossRef]
     [Google Scholar]
  29. Scaletsky I. C. A., Pedroso M. Z., Oliva C. A. G., Carvalho R. L. B., Morais M. B., Fagundes-Neto U. 1999; A localized adherence-like pattern as a second pattern of adherence of classic enteropathogenic Escherichia coli to HEp-2 cells that is associated with infantile diarrhea. Infect Immun 67:3410–3415
     [Google Scholar]
  30. Scaletsky I. C., Fabbricotti S. H., Silva S. O., Morais M. B., Fagundes-Neto U. 2002; HEp-2-adherent Escherichia coli strains associated with acute infantile diarrhea. Sao Paulo, Brazil. Emerg Infect Dis 8:855–858 [CrossRef]
     [Google Scholar]
  31. Trabulsi L. R., Keller R., Tardelli Gomes T. A. 2002; Typical and atypical enteropathogenic Escherichia coli . Emerg Infect Dis 8:508–513 [CrossRef]
     [Google Scholar]
  32. Vieira M. A., Andrade J. R., Trabulsi L. R., Rosa A. C., Dias A. M., Ramos S. R., Frankel G., Gomes T. A. 2001; Phenotypic and genotypic characteristics of Escherichia coli strains of non-enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC) serogroups that carry EAE and lack the EPEC adherence factor and Shiga toxin DNA probe sequences. J Infect Dis 183:762–772 [CrossRef]
     [Google Scholar]
  33. Yatsuyanagi J., Saito S., Sato H., Miyajima Y., Amano K.-I., Enomoto K. 2002; Characterization of enteropathogenic and enteroaggregative Escherichia coli isolated from diarrheal outbreaks. J Clin Microbiol 40:294–297 [CrossRef]
     [Google Scholar]
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/jmm.0.013706-0
Loading
Allelic variability of critical virulence genes (eae, bfpA and perA) in typical and atypical enteropathogenic Escherichia coli in Peruvian children
J. Med. Microbiol. 59, 25 (2010); https://doi.org/10.1099/jmm.0.013706-0
/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/jmm.0.013706-0
/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/jmm.0.013706-0
Loading

Data & Media loading...

Most cited Most Cited RSS feed

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error