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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, August 2009, p. 2442-2451, Vol. 47, No. 8
0095-1137/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JCM.00566-09
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Genes Related to Long Polar Fimbriae of Pathogenic Escherichia coli Strains as Reliable Markers To Identify Virulent Isolates{triangledown} ,{dagger}

Alfredo G. Torres,1,2* Miguel Blanco,3 Patricio Valenzuela,4 Terry M. Slater,1 Shilpa D. Patel,1 Ghizlane Dahbi,3 Cecilia López,3 Ximena Fernández Barriga,4 Jesús E. Blanco,3 Tânia A. T. Gomes,5 Roberto Vidal,4 and Jorge Blanco3

Department of Microbiology and Immunology,1 Department of Pathology and Sealy Center for Vaccine Development, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas 77555-1070,2 Departamento de Microbioloxía e Parasitoloxía, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Lugo, Spain 27002,3 Programa de Microbiología, Instituto de Ciencias Biomédicas, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile,4 Departamento de Microbiologia, Imunologia, e Parasitologia, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil5

Received 19 March 2009/ Returned for modification 7 May 2009/ Accepted 22 May 2009

Lpf (stands for long polar fimbriae) is one of the few adhesive factors of enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli O157:H7 associated with colonization of the intestine. E. coli O157:H7 strains possess two lpf loci encoding highly regulated fimbrial structures. Database analysis of the genes encoding the major fimbrial subunits demonstrated that they are present in commensal as well as pathogenic (both intestinal and extraintestinal) E. coli strains and in Salmonella strains and that the lpfA1 and lpfA2 genes are highly prevalent among LEE (locus of enterocyte effacement)-positive E. coli strains associated with severe and/or epidemic disease. Further DNA sequence analysis of the lpfA1 and lpfA2 genes from different attaching-and-effacing E. coli strains has led us to the identification of several polymorphisms and the classification of the major fimbrial subunits into distinct variants. Using collections of pathogenic E. coli isolates from Europe and Latin America, we demonstrated that the different lpfA types are associated with the presence of specific intimin (eae) adhesin variants and, most importantly, that they are found in specific E. coli pathotypes. Our results showed that the use of these fimbrial genes as markers, in combination with the different intimin types, resulted in a specific test for the identification of E. coli O157:H7, distinguishing it from other pathogenic E. coli strains.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX 77555-1070. Phone: (409) 747-0189. Fax: (409) 747-6869. E-mail: altorres{at}utmb.edu

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 3 June 2009.

{dagger} Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://jcm.asm.org/.

Journal of Clinical Microbiology, August 2009, p. 2442-2451, Vol. 47, No. 8
0095-1137/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JCM.00566-09
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.





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