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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, May 2003, p. 2033-2039, Vol. 41, No. 5
0095-1137/03/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/JCM.41.5.2033-2039.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Characterization of Atypical Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli Strains Harboring the astA Gene That Were Associated with a Waterborne Outbreak of Diarrhea in Japan

Jun Yatsuyanagi,1* Shioko Saito,1 Yoshimichi Miyajima,1 Ken-Ichi Amano,2 and Katsuhiko Enomoto3

Akita Prefectural Institute of Public Health, 6-6 Sensyu Kubota-Machi, Akita 010-0874,1 Central Research Laboratory,2 Department of Pathology, Akita University School of Medicine, 1-1-1 Hondo, Akita 010-8543, Japan3

Received 28 October 2002/ Returned for modification 1 January 2003/ Accepted 27 January 2003

The virulence traits of the Escherichia coli strain associated with a waterborne diarrhea outbreak were examined. Forty-one of 75 students (ages 12 to 15) in Akita Prefecture, Japan, showed clinical symptoms. Seven E. coli Ouk:K-:H45 isolates were isolated from the patients as the causative agent of this outbreak. One isolate (EC-3605) showed the presence of E. coli attaching-and-effacing (eaeA) and enteroaggregative E. coli heat-stable enterotoxin-1 (astA) genes and the absence of Shiga toxin (stx1 and stx2) genes. A polymorphic enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC) adherence factor plasmid was detected in EC-3605 with a major structural gene deletion and a regulatory gene frameshift mutation, revealing that EC-3605 represents an atypical EPEC strain harboring the astA gene. The role that atypical EPEC strains harboring the astA gene play in human disease is unclear. Our results, along with those of others, present a possibility that these strains comprise a distinct category of diarrheagenic E. coli and that astA affects the age distribution of atypical-EPEC infection.


* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Akita Prefectural Institute of Public Health, 6-6 Sensyu Kubota-Machi, Akita 010-0874, Japan. Phone: 81-18-832-5005. Fax: 81-18-832-5938. E-mail: jyatsu{at}spica.freemail.ne.jp.


Journal of Clinical Microbiology, May 2003, p. 2033-2039, Vol. 41, No. 5
0095-1137/03/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/JCM.41.5.2033-2039.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.




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