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Infect Immun, June 1998, p. 2553-2561, Vol. 66, No. 6
0019-9567/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Evolution of Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia
coli Hemolysin Plasmids and the Locus for Enterocyte Effacement in
Shiga Toxin-Producing E. coli
Patrick
Boerlin,1,2
Shu
Chen,3
John K.
Colbourne,4
Roger
Johnson,1,5
Stephanie
De Grandis,3 and
Carlton
Gyles1,*
Department of
Pathobiology,1
Laboratory Services
Division,3 and
Department of
Zoology,4 University of Guelph, and
Health of Animals Laboratory, Health
Canada,5 Guelph, Ontario, Canada, and
Institute for Veterinary Bacteriology, University of Bern,
Bern, Switzerland2
Received 13 November 1997/Returned for modification 12 March
1998/Accepted 1 April 1998
This study assessed the diversity of the enterohemorrhagic
Escherichia coli (EHEC) hemolysin gene (ehxA)
in a variety of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC)
serotypes and the relationship between ehxA types and
virulence markers on the locus for enterocyte effacement (LEE).
Restriction fragment length polymorphism of the ehxA gene
and flanking sequences and of the E. coli attaching and
effacing (eae) gene was determined for 79 EHEC
hemolysin-positive STEC isolates of 37 serotypes. Two main groups of
EHEC hemolysin sequences and associated plasmids, which corresponded to
the eae-positive and the eae-negative isolates,
were delineated. Comparisons of the ehxA gene sequences of
representative isolates of each group showed that this gene and the
rest of the EHEC hemolysin operon are highly conserved. Digestion of an
ehxA PCR product with the restriction endonuclease
TaqI showed a unique restriction pattern for
eae-negative isolates and another one for isolates of
serotypes O157:H7 and O157:NM. A conserved fragment of 5.6 kb with four potential open reading frames was identified on the EHEC hemolysin plasmid of eae-positive STEC. Phylogenetic analysis of a
subset of 27 STEC isolates, one enteropathogenic E. coli
isolate, and a K-12 reference isolate showed that
eae-positive STEC isolates all belong to a single
evolutionary lineage and that the EHEC hemolysin plasmid and the
ehxA gene evolved within this lineage without recent
horizontal transfer. However, the eae gene and the LEE
appear to have been transferred horizontally within this STEC lineage
on several occasions. The reasons for the lack of transfer or
maintenance of the LEE in other STEC lineages are not clear and require
further study.
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of
Pathobiology, Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario N1G 2W1, Canada. Phone: (519) 824-4120, ext. 4715. Fax: (519)
767-0809. E-mail: cgyles{at}ovcnet.uoguelph.ca.
Infect Immun, June 1998, p. 2553-2561, Vol. 66, No. 6
0019-9567/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
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