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Infection and Immunity, May 2000, p. 2766-2774, Vol. 68, No. 5
0019-9567/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Identification of a Gene within a Pathogenicity
Island of Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli H10407 Required
for Maximal Secretion of the Heat-Labile Enterotoxin
James M.
Fleckenstein,1,2,3,*
Luther E.
Lindler,3
Eric A.
Elsinghorst,4 and
James B.
Dale1,2
Medicine Service, Veterans Affairs Medical
Center, Memphis, Tennessee 381041;
Department of Medicine, University of Tennessee, Memphis,
Tennessee 381632; Department of
Bacterial Diseases, Division of Communicable Diseases and Immunology,
Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Washington, D.C.
20307-51003; and Department of
Microbiology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas
66045-21064
Received 14 October 1999/Returned for modification 15 December
1999/Accepted 14 February 2000
Studies of the pathogenesis of enterotoxigenic Escherichia
coli (ETEC) have largely centered on extrachromosomal
determinants of virulence, in particular the plasmid-encoded
heat-labile (LT) and heat-stable enterotoxins and the colonization
factor antigens. ETEC causes illnesses that range from mild diarrhea to
severe cholera-like disease. These differences in disease severity are not readily accounted for by our current understanding of ETEC pathogenesis. Here we demonstrate that Tia, a putative adhesin of ETEC
H10407, is encoded on a large chromosomal element of approximately 46 kb that shares multiple features with previously described E. coli pathogenicity islands. Further analysis of the region
downstream from tia revealed the presence of several
candidate open reading frames (ORFs) in the same transcriptional
orientation as tia. The putative proteins encoded by these
ORFs bear multiple motifs associated with bacterial secretion
apparatuses. An in-frame deletion in one candidate gene identified here
as leoA (labile enterotoxin output) resulted in marked
diminution of secretion of the LT enterotoxin and lack of fluid
accumulation in a rabbit ileal loop model of infection. Although
previous studies have suggested that E. coli lacks the
capacity to secrete LT, our studies show that maximal release of LT
from the periplasm of H10407 is dependent on one or more elements
encoded on a pathogenicity island.
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Research Service
(151), Veterans Affairs Medical Center, 1030 Jefferson Ave., Memphis, TN 38104. Phone: (901) 448-5786. Fax: (901) 577-7273. E-mail: jfleckenstei{at}utmem.edu.
Infection and Immunity, May 2000, p. 2766-2774, Vol. 68, No. 5
0019-9567/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
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