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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, March 2003, p. 1033-1040, Vol. 41, No. 3
0095-1137/03/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/JCM.41.3.1033-1040.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Serology and Genetics of the Flagellar Antigen of Escherichia coli O157:H7a,7c

Mechnikov Research Institute for Vaccines and Sera of Russian Academy of Medical Science, Moscow, Russia,¹ National Public Health Institute (KTL), Helsinki, Finland²

Received 8 July 2002/ Returned for modification 3 September 2002/ Accepted 23 November 2002

Among Escherichia coli strains of the O55:H7 serovar, which is considered the ancestor of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) O157:H7, two subtypes, H7a,7b and H7a,7c (briefly, H7a,b and H7a,c, respectively), of the H7 flagellar antigen have been described previously [J. Wright and R. Villanueva, J. Hyg. (Camb.) 51:39-48, 1953; Y. A. Ratiner and V. A. Sinelnikova, Zh. Microbiol. Epidemiol. Immunobiol. 3:111-116, 1969). We have now studied 13 STEC O157:H7 strains and 1 O55:H7 strain that were epidemiologically unrelated, that originated from six countries on two continents, and that had different profiles when analyzed by multilocus enzyme electrophoresis, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, and PCR for stx and eae. They were all found to possess the H7a,c flagellar antigen. Serum cross-absorption assays confirmed that their H antigens were indistinguishable from each other and from that of E. coli O55:H7a,c but differed from the standard H7a,b antigen of E. coli H test strain U5/41. It was shown by phage-mediated transduction that the flagellin genes for these two H-antigen subserotypes were alleles of the E. coli fliC locus. On the basis of the serological data obtained in this study and the molecular characteristics of E. coli fliC_H7 alleles recently published, it is inferred that H7a,c and H7a,b are the main serological subtypes of the group of E. coli H7 flagellins.