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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, August 1998, p. 2314-2321, Vol. 36, No. 8
0095-1137/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Genotypic Characterization of Salmonella
enteritidis Phage Types by Plasmid Analysis, Ribotyping,
and Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis
A. M.
Ridley,*
E. J.
Threlfall, and
B.
Rowe
Laboratory of Enteric Pathogens, Central
Public Health Laboratory, London NW9 5HT, United Kingdom
Received 17 February 1998/Returned for modification 15 April
1998/Accepted 15 May 1998
 |
ABSTRACT |
Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) was used to resolve
XbaI and SpeI macrorestriction fragments from
60 defined phage type (PT) reference strains of Salmonella
enteritidis. The level of discrimination was compared to that
afforded by plasmid profile analysis and ribotyping. Twenty-eight
distinct XbaI pulsed-field profiles (PFPs) were observed,
although a single type, PFP X1, predominated. Absence of the 57-kb
spv-associated fragment was observed for three PT reference
strains, and the profile was designated PFP X1A. The XbaI
macrorestriction profiles of a further four PT reference strains were
altered by the presence of plasmid-associated bands. Twenty-six
SpeI-generated PFPs (plus one subtype) were observed for
the same strains. No SpeI fragment corresponding to the
38-MDa serovar-specific plasmid was detected. The distribution of
XbaI and SpeI profiles did not always
correspond, producing a total of 32 combined PFPs for the 60 PT
reference strains. This compared with a total of 18 different plasmid
profiles and three PvuII ribotypes generated by the same
strains. The results of this study indicate that PFGE may offer an
improved level of discrimination over other genotypic typing methods
for the epidemiological typing of S. enteritidis.
 |
INTRODUCTION |
Salmonella enteritidis
remains the most common Salmonella serotype recovered from
humans in England and Wales (1), with 18,968 isolates
referred to the Laboratory of Enteric Pathogens in 1996. Although phage
type (PT) 4 has predominated for some time, the number of isolates
involving this PT appears to be declining, with a corresponding
increase in isolations of PTs 6, 1, 8, and 6a being recorded. Of
isolates of S. enteritidis received during 1996, five
PTs (4, 1, 6, 6a, and 8) accounted for 88%, and specifically, 72% of
the strains belonged to PT 4, 5% to PT 6, 4% to PT 1, 3% to PT 8, and 3% to PT 6a.
Strain identification is essential for the effective investigation of
common-source outbreaks, and phage typing is the method of choice for
the primary differentiation of S. enteritidis. The scheme of
Ward and colleagues (28) defined 27 PTs for this serovar (22), and this has subsequently been extended to 60 types
(28a). However, this method has limited applicability for
epidemiological studies, as the majority of isolates from cases of
human infection in the United Kingdom since 1987 have belonged to PT 4. Further subdivision by DNA-based methods may therefore be required for investigation of outbreaks. Plasmid profiling has been shown to be of
limited use for the subdivision of S. enteritidis PT 4, as
many strains carry a single 38-MDa plasmid (23, 24). DNA probes based on insertion sequence IS200 (7)
generate only two fragments with the majority of S. enteritidis PTs (21), consequently limiting the
discriminatory potential. Probes based on rRNA, including rRNA (4,
10), the cloned rrn operon of Escherichia
coli (2), and an intragenic fragment of the 16S rrn gene amplified by PCR (18), have been applied
to the analysis and elucidation of phylogenetic relationships in
several Salmonella serotypes. Probes based on known
(20) or randomly cloned (25) sequences have also
been used with varying degrees of success. These methods have led to
the conclusion that S. enteritidis falls into three clonal
lines, with the prevalent PTs, PT 4 and PT 6, falling in the first
group (14).
Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) has become established as a
method for the analysis of large DNA fragments generated by restriction
endonuclease digestion of genomic DNA (17). The procedure
has been used successfully for the estimation of genomic size and the
determination of the physical map of S. enteritidis SSU7998
(9). PFGE has also recently been applied to epidemiological investigation of Salmonella serovars and provides a useful
indicator of the level of genotypic diversity existing between strains
(12, 14). Preliminary studies have demonstrated that strains
of S. enteritidis PT 4 can be subdivided by PFGE
(15). However, to further evaluate the potential of the
method for all S. enteritidis PTs, it is important that
phylogenetic relationships between the different PTs of S. enteritidis be elucidated in relation to the relationships
provided by chromosomal fingerprinting methods, such as pulsed-field
profile (PFP) patterns and restriction fragment length polymorphism
(RFLP) at 16S rRNA gene loci.
We describe the genotypic characterization of S. enteritidis
PT reference strains by PFGE and ribotyping. The epidemiological applicability of these methods is also assessed.
 |
MATERIALS AND METHODS |
Bacterial strains.
Sixty strains representing the currently
defined PT reference strains of S. enteritidis, listed in
Table 1, were stored on nutrient agar
slopes and grown overnight in nutrient broth at 37°C. The strains
were maintained in the culture collection of the Laboratory of Enteric
Pathogens and had been phage typed by standard methods (28).
Plasmid analysis.
Plasmid DNA was isolated by the method of
Kado and Liu (6) and analyzed by agarose gel electrophoresis
with E. coli 39R861 as a plasmid molecular mass marker
(24). Plasmid sizes were determined with reference to 39R861
and the 38-MDa S. enteritidis serovar-specific plasmid
(SSP). Plasmid DNA was transferred to Hybond N hybridization membranes
(Amersham International, Amersham, United Kingdom) by capillary
blotting. The presence of the Salmonella plasmid virulence
(spv) region was determined by hybridization to a
digoxigenin-labelled probe comprising a 437-bp fragment encoding the
spvC virulence gene, prepared by PCR with oligonucleotide primers (Boehringer Mannheim, Lewes, United Kingdom) (4a).
Detection of the hybridization signal was done according to the
manufacturer's recommendations.
Ribotyping.
Genomic DNA was extracted by the method of
Wilson (29). Approximately 2 µg was digested with
PvuII (Boehringer Mannheim) and electrophoresed, together
with digoxigenin-labelled HindIII digest of
bacteriophage
(Boehringer Mannheim), on a 0.8% agarose (Med EEO;
Sigma, Poole, United Kingdom) gel. The DNA was transferred to Hybond N
hybridization membranes as described above and hybridized to a 550-bp
rrnB probe (3) prepared by PCR amplification and incorporating 11-dUTP-digoxigenin (Boehringer Mannheim) label. Immunological detection was done by standard protocols (Boehringer Mannheim), and restriction fragment patterns were compared visually. The level of discrimination provided was assessed by calculation of
Simpsons' index as described by Hunter and Gaston (5).
PFGE.
The method of strain preparation was essentially that
described by Powell and colleagues (15). Chromosomal DNA
contained in the agarose plugs was digested with 10 to 20 U of
XbaI, NotI (Boehringer Mannheim),
AvrII (BlnI), SpeI, or NheI
(New England Biolabs, Hitchin, United Kingdom). PFGE was performed with
CHEF DRII systems (Bio-Rad, Hemel Hempstead, United Kingdom) in 0.5× Tris-borate-EDTA. DNA macrorestriction fragments were resolved on 1.0%
agarose gels (PFGE certified; Bio-Rad). Lambda ladders, comprising
48.5-kb concatemers (Sigma), were used as size standards. Electrophoresis conditions used as standard in this study were 6 V/cm
for 40 h. Pulse times were ramped from 15 to 40 s during the
run for XbaI-generated macrorestriction fragments. Runs
comprising 4.8 V/cm for 66 h ramped at 10 to 100 s were also
employed in some cases to ensure that alterations to very high
molecular weight fragments were not overlooked. The preferred pulse
time employed for a 40-h PFGE analysis of SpeI
macrorestriction fragments was 5 to 20 s.
The preparation of DNA from selected strains was repeated, and
preparations of all strains were digested and electrophoresed
under the
same conditions on at least two occasions to assess
the reproducibility
of the method and the stabilities of strains.
Macrorestriction fragment
patterns were compared visually in order
to obtain schematic
representations of all profiles observed.
PFPs were assigned to types
in accordance with those obtained
in a previous study (
15).
Simpson's index of discrimination
was calculated as described above
(
5). Selected gels were blotted
onto nylon membranes and
hybridized to Digoxigenin-labelled
spvC,
as described above,
in order to determine the macrorestriction
fragments encoding the
S. enteritidis SSP.
 |
RESULTS |
Plasmid profile and spv analysis.
Plasmid masses,
in megadaltons, obtained for each S. enteritidis PT
reference strain are shown in Table 1. Of the 60 PT reference strains,
42 carried the 38-MDa S. enteritidis SSP, and of these 42 strains, 13 carried additional plasmids. Five PT reference strains were
plasmid free, and the remainder carried at least one plasmid of 33 MDa
or greater (Table 1 and Fig. 1). The
reference strain for PT 6 (P99327) carried a 50-MDa plasmid, which
hybridized to spvC, plus additional plasmids of 4.6 and 2.6 MDa, a profile which differed from that previously reported
(24). Plasmids of approximately 59, 4.0, and 3.0 MDa were
observed for the PT 6a reference strain, E2408 (Table 1). Both the
59-MDa plasmids of PTs 6a, 9a, 9b, 11, and 20 and the 33-MDa plasmids
of PTs 9c, 37, and 40 hybridized to spvC. In contrast, the
single 65-MDa plasmid carried by the reference strain of PT 10 (E3945)
failed to hybridize to this probe, as did 65-MDa plasmids carried in addition to the 38-MDa SSP in the PT 5a and PT 22 reference strains.

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FIG. 1.
Plasmid profiles of selected S. enteritidis
PT reference strains showing the range of different types observed.
Lanes: 1, P221267 (S. enteritidis PT 1a); 2, P328130 (PT
40); 3, E2187 (PT 4); 4, P367587 (PT 1c); 5, P316257 (PT 5b); 6, E2468
(PT 8); 7, E1949 (PT 19); 8, P138532 (PT 20a); 9, P72580 (PT 21); 10, P100613 (PT 25); 11, P125363 (PT 28); 12, P332932 (PT 6b); 13, P310001
(PT 24a); 14, P104204 (PT 30); 15, P271454 (PT 38); 16, E2109 (PT 11);
17, P106583 (PT 9a); 18, E2408 (PT 6a); 19, E3945 (PT 10); 20, E. coli 39R861.
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Ribotyping.
Three distinct PvuII profiles were
observed among the 60 S. enteritidis PT reference strains
examined after hybridization with the 16S rrnB riboprobe
(Fig. 2). Ribotyping with
PvuII as the sole restriction enzyme was not particularly
helpful in discriminating within S. enteritidis, as the
majority (50 of 60) of the reference strains belonged to
PvuII type A (Table 1 and Fig. 2, lanes 2 to 4, 6, 7, and 12 to 14); five strains generated each of the other ribotypes, B (Fig. 2,
lanes 5 and 9) and C (Fig. 2, lanes 8, 10, and 11). The numerical index
of discrimination (DI) for PvuII ribotyping of the 60 PT
reference strains was low (DI = 0.259).

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FIG. 2.
PvuII-derived 16S rRNA gene profiles of
S. enteritidis PT reference strains selected on the basis of
their different PFGE profiles showing the limited variation between the
three ribotypes. Lane 1 shows HindIII-digested,
Digoxigenin-labelled marker; lanes 2 to 14 show PvuII
digests. Lanes: 2, P367587 (S. enteritidis PT 1c); 3, E2187
(PT 4); 4, P316257 (PT 5b); 5, E2408 (PT 6a); 6, P278053 (PT 8a); 7, P312425 (PT 9c); 8, E2387 (PT 14); 9, P118526 (PT14b); 10, P106583 (PT
9a); 11, E2109 (PT 11); 12, P310001 (PT 24a); 13, P328130 (PT 40); 14, P366159 (PT 41).
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PFGE analysis and identification of profile types. (i)
XbaI.
PFGE permitted the resolution of XbaI
macrorestriction fragments of the 60 PT reference strains into 28 distinct types (Fig. 3). XbaI
PFPs typically comprised 13 to 16 resolvable bands (usually 14) between
40 and 600 kb under the conditions used in the study (Fig.
4A), correlating well with the
XbaI genomic cleavage map of S. enteritidis
SSU7998, which revealed 16 fragments ranging from 19 to 900 kb in size
(9). The predominant XbaI profile was identical
to PFP 1 described by Powell et al. (15) and was accordingly
designated PFP X1 (Fig. 4A, lane 2). A variation of PFP X1, designated
PFP X1A, from which a single 57-kb fragment representing the 38-MDa
plasmid was absent (Fig. 4A, lane 5), was observed for three strains,
of which two (P221267 and P124191) were plasmid free. The 57-kb
XbaI fragment corresponded to the 38-MDa plasmid encoding
the common virulence region, which contains a single XbaI
site, and appeared as a linear fragment of approximately 57 kb after
resolution by PFGE. The PT 37 reference strain (P267187) carried a
single 33-MDa plasmid, which was not visible by PFGE analysis under the
conditions employed. In contrast, for the reference strains of S. enteritidis PTs 6 and 30, the 57-kb XbaI fragment was
absent but plasmid-associated fragments of approximately 70 (PFP X1B)
and 63 kb (PFP X1E) were generated, corresponding to the observed
carriage of plasmids of 50 and 45 MDa, respectively (Table 1 and Fig.
4A, lane 4). The 70-, 63-, and 57-kb XbaI fragments, corresponding to the 50-, 45-, and 38-MDa plasmids, contained spv, as all hybridized to the spvC probe (not
shown). The XbaI-generated PFPs X1, X12, X11, and X1A were
the most commonly observed profiles among the S. enteritidis
PT reference strains; PFP X1 was generated by the type strains of
S. enteritidis PTs 1c, 4, 4a, 5a, 5b, 7a, 14b, 21, 24, 25, 27, 31, 36, and 39; PFP X12 was generated by PTs 2, 8, 8a, 13a, 23, and
28 (X12A by PT 7); PFP X11 was generated by PTs 1, 1b, 32, and 35 (X11A
by PT 5); and PFP X1A was generated by reference strains of PTs 1a, 29, and 37 (Table 1). There were two instances of reference strains
generating PFPs which were almost identical to those of an
already-defined type but which differed by the appearance of a single
XbaI-generated band in each case, which was reproducible for
different preparations of the same strains and did not appear to be
plasmid associated (not shown). The affected PTs were designated
subtypes of the PFP from which they are likely to have been derived
(PFP X11A from X11 and PFP X12A from X12 [Table 1]). PFPs X13 and
X13A were differentiated by a positional change of a single
plasmid-associated band (57 to 63 kb). The discrimination index
calculated for XbaI macrorestriction profiles of S. enteritidis PTs analyzed by PFGE was 0.874.

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FIG. 3.
Schematic representation of all 35 XbaI-generated macrorestriction profiles, including
subtypes, resolved by PFGE for the 60 PT reference strains of S. enteritidis. The PFPs above the columns are correlated with
strains in Table 1.
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FIG. 4.
PFGE analysis of XbaI (A)- and
SpeI (B)-digested genomic DNA from S. enteritidis
PT reference strains showing both similar and unique PFGE types. Lanes:
1, 48.5-kb ladder; 2, E2187 (S. enteritidis PT 4); 3, E2331 (PT 1); 4, P104204 (PT 30); 5, P221267 (PT 1a); 6, E2468 (PT 8);
7, P66040 (PT 3); 8, P135293 (PT 32); 9, E3945 (PT 10); 10, P122530 (PT
27); 11, P89448 (PT 18); 12, P84357 (PT 22); 13, E2109 (PT 11); 14, P138678 (PT 11a); 15, P187803 (PT 11b).
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(ii) SpeI.
Macrorestriction fragments of the 60 S. enteritidis PT reference strains generated by
SpeI were resolved into 25 individual profiles by PFGE by
using pulse times of 5 to 20 s (Fig. 4B and 5). Differences in profiles ranged from
the loss of a single fragment of 70 to 75 kb to profiles which
comprised five common resolvable bands in a macrorestriction profile
which typically comprised 21 clearly resolvable bands of between 30 and
450 kb, some of which were observed as doublets (Fig. 4B).

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FIG. 5.
Schematic representation of the 26 SpeI
macrorestriction profiles, including one subtype, resolved by PFGE for
the 60 PT reference strains of S. enteritidis. The PFPs
above the columns are correlated with strains in Table 1. Broken lines
correspond to faint but reproducible SpeI-generated bands.
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Two
SpeI PFPs predominated among the 60
S. enteritidis PT reference strains (Table
1 and Fig.
4B). The most
common, PFP S1,
was generated by
S. enteritidis PTs 1a, 1c,
4, 4a, 5a, 5b, 6b,
7a, 12, 14b, 17, 18, 21, 24, 25, 29, 30, 36, 37, 38, 39, and 41
(Fig.
4B, lanes 2 and 5), while PFP S3 was produced by PTs
2,
8, 13a, 15, 22, 23, and 28 (Fig.
4B, lanes 6 and 12). The reference
strains of
S. enteritidis PTs 1, 1b, and 5 generated PFP S2
(Fig.
4B, lane 3). These three profiles were very similar, differing
by
the presence or absence of one or two bands. A single band
of
approximately 90 kb in PFP S1 appeared as a doublet in PFP
S2; however,
PFP S2 lacked a fragment of approximately 70 kb which
was present in
PFP S1 (Fig.
4B, lanes 2 and 3). Additional differences
were observed
in the migration of one fragment of the doublet
of approximately 98 kb
and one of 55 kb; these differences were
found to be reproducible. PFP
S3 differed from PFP S2 by the apparent
loss of a 70-kb fragment, and
PFP S3A was similar to PFP S3 but
did not generate
SpeI
fragments below 40 kb. There did not appear
to be a single
SpeI-generated fragment correlating with the 57-kb
fragment
visible on
XbaI-generated PFPs, corresponding to the
presence of the 38-MDa
S. enteritidis SSP. This was
confirmed
by hybridization of
SpeI-digested DNA from strains
of
S. enteritidis with Digoxigenin-labelled
spvC
probe. The calculated discrimination
index for
SpeI-generated PFGE profiles of the 60 PT reference
strains
was 0.870, making this enzyme marginally less discriminatory
than
XbaI.
(iii) Combined XbaI and SpeI profiles.
When the results of macrorestriction with SpeI and
XbaI were combined there were six groups comprising two or
more type strains of S. enteritidis PTs generating identical
combined profiles. The remaining PT type strains generated unique
combined PFPs. The largest group comprised 12 S. enteritidis
PTs (1c, 4, 4a, 5a, 5b, 7a, 14b, 21, 24, 25, 36, and 39) and displayed
a PFP XS1 macrorestriction profile, resulting from the combination of
the predominant XbaI- and SpeI-generated profiles
(Table 1). The second most prevalent combined type (PFP XS7) was
generated by five PT type strains (PTs 2, 8, 13a, 23, and 28) and
resulted from a combination of PFP X12 and PFP S3 (Table 1). There was a significant amount of overlap between PFPs generated by
XbaI and SpeI, resulting in only a small increase
in the number of types (to 32) and a corresponding improvement in
discrimination (DI = 0.902).
(iv) Other restriction endonucleases.
Macrorestriction
analysis of S. enteritidis with NotI and
NheI generated too many fragments below 100 kb for practical
analysis, particularly as fragments below 70 kb were poorly resolved
and could comprise digested extrachromosomal DNA. In contrast,
AvrII, an isoschizomer of BlnI, generated a
maximum of 10 resolvable fragments, compared with the 12 BlnI fragments reported for the genomic cleavage map of
S. enteritidis SSU7998 (9), but did not offer
improved discrimination over that of XbaI.
Reproducibility.
Minor variations between different
preparations of the same strains were not observed within the confines
of the study, with the exception of a weak fragment of >700 kb
appearing in occasional preparations (not shown). This was considered
to be due to the presence of incompletely digested DNA and was usually
removed by further treatment with proteinase K and subsequent washing steps.
Reduction of the electrophoresis time, from 64 to 40 h, with a
corresponding increase in voltage, was applied in order to
reduce the
overall time required to generate a PFP. This was achieved,
but with
loss of resolution of very large fragments (>600 kb).
However,
profiles containing differences in bands of this size
also had
variations in smaller fragments.
Comparison of PFGE, ribotyping, and plasmid profile types.
S.
enteritidis PT reference strains generating the predominant PFGE
combined type, PFP XS1, carried the 38-MDa SSP. Some strains were
observed to carry additional plasmids (Table 1), none of which showed
homology to spvC. With a single exception, this group of
strains generated the predominant PvuII ribotype (A). Only P118526 (PT 14b) generated ribotype B, which differed by the increase in size (from approximately 8.8 to 10.5 kb) of the second largest PvuII-generated band (Fig. 2, lane 9). Strains belonging to
the second most common combined PFP (XS7) generally carried a single plasmid of 38 MDa. Only P125363 (PT 28) carried an additional plasmid,
of 8 MDa, which did not appear to affect either the ribotype or PFP. Of
the S. enteritidis PT strains found to be plasmid-free (PTs
1a, 11b, 16, 26, and 29), only those of PTs 1a and 29 generated PFP
XS1A. The remaining strains belonging to this group generated unique
XbaI and SpeI PFPs.
S. enteritidis PT reference strains generating ribotypes B
and C did not carry the 38-MDa SSP and, with a single exception
(PT
14b), generated combined PFPs unique to each strain (Table
1).
Reference strains generating
PvuII ribotype B varied in
plasmid
profiles (Table
1). In contrast, four of the five strains
generating
PvuII ribotype C possessed a single 59-MDa
plasmid which showed
homology to
spvC, while P187803 (PT
11b) was plasmid free (Table
1).
 |
DISCUSSION |
Genotypic analysis of Salmonella by molecular typing
methods has proved to be helpful in the characterization of strains
from a range of Salmonella serovars (4, 11-16, 19-21,
26, 27). In this study, the 38-MDa SSP was not common to all
S. enteritidis PTs but was present in the reference strains
of most of the PTs commonly causing human infection. Notable exceptions
were the reference strains of PT 6 (P99327) and PT 6a (E2408), each of which carried a plasmid of >38 MDa but also carried the common virulence region. However, examination of recent human strains belonging to PTs 6 and 6a indicates the presence of the 38-MDa SSP and
the absence of the 59-MDa plasmid in the majority of strains (16,
16a). Although plasmid analyses have not been included in
combination with other genotyping methods in previous studies involving
typing of S. enteritidis, it was useful to correlate the
presence of particular plasmids with fragments obtained by PFGE
analyses. Typically, plasmids were observed as intensely stained
fragments on PFGE gels, although this was less apparent for the 57-kb
XbaI fragment corresponding to the S. enteritidis SSP.
This study has extended the molecular typing of S. enteritidis to 60 PTs. Plasmid-free strains did not hybridize to
spvC, and the XbaI profiles were distinguished by
the absence of a 57-kb fragment, which when present hybridizes to
spvC. A corresponding fragment was not detected in
SpeI macrorestriction profiles analyzed by PFGE, and it is
presumed that the lack of a SpeI site in the SSP allows it
to remain supercoiled and hence to migrate off the end of the gel. The
results have provided a useful indicator as to how plasmids may affect
PFGE profiles.
Although plasmid analysis appeared to exhibit a variety of profiles,
the majority contained the 38-MDa S. enteritidis SSP, and
many of the differences observed were due to carriage of additional small plasmids. In this study plasmids in addition to the 38-MDa SSP
failed to hybridize to the spvC gene probe, and it was
concluded that they were unrelated. Carriage of 4.0-MDa plasmids, as
found in the type strains of S. enteritidis PTs 6a, 19, and
25, has been associated with resistance to ampicillin (3).
The plasmids of 33, 50, 59, and 65 MDa carried by PT type strains not
possessing the 38-MDa SSP hybridized to the spvC probe,
generating XbaI fragments of 50, 75, 85, and 100 kb,
respectively. This suggests that they are related to the SSP and
contrasts with the findings of Liebisch and Schwartz (8),
which suggested that large plasmid bands do not account for the RFLP
detected by PFGE. The reference strain of PT 6 originally contained
plasmids of 65, 38, 2.6, and 1.0 MDa (24), compared with the
50-, 4.0-, and 2.6-MDa plasmids observed for the same strain in this
study. It may be that a segment of DNA has been lost from the 65-MDa
plasmid and taken up by the 38-MDa SSP, thereby increasing its size to
50 MDa (Table 1). The 50-MDa plasmid was observed to hybridize to
spvC, confirming the presence of the common virulence region
in this plasmid. This study also reports the presence of a single
38-MDa SSP, corresponding to a 57-kb XbaI fragment, in the
reference strain of PT 3 (P66040), a finding in contrast with those of
Threlfall et al. (24), who observed a 59-MDa plasmid in the
same strain. Although useful for strain discrimination in some
outbreaks involving S. enteritidis, plasmid profiling does
not generally convey strain-specific information.
Genotypic diversity between phenotypically related PTs.
PFGE
analysis demonstrates that some S. enteritidis PT reference
strains generating similar phage typing reactions are genotypically distinct. This observation was most pronounced for reference strains of
S. enteritidis PTs 11, 11a, and 11b for both XbaI
and SpeI macrorestriction fragments (Fig. 4, lanes 13 to
15). The reference strains of PT 11 and 11a XbaI PFPs (X19
and X20) contained 14 band differences, for a total of 13 to 14 resolvable bands of
40 kb (Fig. 4A, lanes 13 to 15). The
SpeI PFPs (S11 and S12) for the same strains resulted in 12 differences, for a total of 16 to 17 resolvable bands of
48.5 kb,
where 8 bands were common to both PFPs (Fig. 4B, lanes 13 to 15). The
SpeI PFP generated by the PT 11b reference strain (S13)
shared six common fragments with each of the S11 and S12 PFPs, with
between 9 and 17 band differences observed. Five XbaI
fragments of
40 kb were observed to be shared between the PFPs of PTs
11a and 11b, and four were shared between PFPs of PTs 11 and 11b.
Fifteen band differences were identified between the
XbaI
macrorestriction profiles of PTs 14 and 14b and between 8 and 10
differences were identified between the
XbaI PFPs of PTs 9, 9a,
9b, and 9c. Similarly, between 6 and 10 band differences were
observed in the PFPs of the PT 6, 6a, and 6b reference strains.
The
corresponding
SpeI profiles of these nine PT reference
strains
revealed between 4 and 10 band differences from a maximum of 18
resolvable bands of

48.5 kb. Such observations indicate that
strains
grouped according to phenotypic reactions may be genotypically
diverse.
Less extensive variation in
XbaI and
SpeI
macrorestriction profiles was observed between the reference strains of
PTs 13 and
13a and for PTs 7 and 7a (up to three band differences),
indicating
a closer genotypic relationship. The type strains of PTs 1 and
1b shared both
XbaI and
SpeI PFPs. The
SpeI PFPs generated by
PTs 1a and 1c were indistinguishable
from each other but differed
in the positions of two bands from those
of PTs 1 and 1b, while
the
XbaI PFPs differed by the absence
of the 57-kb SSP. The type
strains of
S. enteritidis PTs 24 and 24a and those of PTs 20 and
20a revealed three and four band
differences, respectively. In
contrast, the type strains of PTs 4 and
4a shared both
XbaI and
SpeI PFPs (Table
1) and
hence also shared a combined macrorestriction
profile (PFP XS1). Minor
differences in a single fragment size,
leading to the designation of
PFPs X11A, X12A, and S3A, were reproducible
for different preparations
of the same strains. Such variation
may have resulted from a slight
shift in migration of the fragment,
the significance of which is
unclear.
Several strains generating different phage reactions shared a common
genotype. This was especially noticeable for the nine
PT reference
strains generating identical combined
XbaI and
SpeI
macrorestriction profiles (PFP XS1). Although the phage
reactions
of the reference strains of
S. enteritidis PTs 4 and 4a appeared
to be similar, those of the reference strains of PTs
12, 21, and
36 and PTs 4, 5a, and 7a were markedly different. Only the
PT
5a reference strain, which carried a 65-MDa plasmid in addition
to
the 38-MDa SSP, generated a distinct plasmid profile. Additional
plasmids of this size have not been associated with changes to
phage
lysis patterns (
22). The predominance of PFPs X1 and S1,
generated by 14 and 22 PT reference strains, respectively, even
among
those type strains not commonly implicated in human infection
suggests
that this genotype may confer an as yet unknown selective
advantage.
Small differences in a single fragment size, leading to PFPs X11A (PT
5) and X12A and S3A (PT 7), were reproducible for different
preparations of the same strains. The altered fragments may have
resulted from a shift in migration, the significance of which
has not
yet been evaluated.
The results of this study correlate well with those of previous studies
by Olsen and colleagues (
14), who reported that
the
convergence of PTs occurred between those which generated
the same
SmaI ribotype and the same
NotI PFGE and
PstI RFLP profiles,
although some generated different
IS
200 profiles. Type strains
from several PTs not previously
typed by molecular methods were
included in the present investigation.
Of these, PTs 1c, 5a, 5b,
7a, 36, and 39 were indistinguishable from
the predominant combined
PFP XS1, ribotype A. Only PTs 1c, 5a, and 5b
carried plasmids
in addition to the 38-MDa SSP.
XbaI and
SpeI were chosen, as their
discrimination between fragments
of >48 kb was greater than that
of other enzymes (
NotI,
NheI, and
AvrII) evaluated. Olsen and
colleagues
(
14) employed
NotI and reported 10 different
macrorestriction
profiles for 33
S. enteritidis PT reference
strains. However,
the PT 16 reference strain (E866) was refractory to
digestion
by this enzyme. In addition, the numerous small
NotI fragments
of <100 kb were excluded for discriminatory
purposes, as they
were not clearly resolved. This study employed
XbaI, generating
28 PFPs, with a further four subtypes of
the predominant PFP X1,
and
SpeI, generating 25 PFPs for the
60
S. enteritidis PT type
strains examined. This does not
include additional PFPs identified
for clinical isolates of
S. enteritidis (
15,
15a,
16). Furthermore,
no strains were
found to be refractory to digestion by the enzymes
chosen for this
study. A recent study demonstrated that ribotyping
and plasmid
profiling provided insufficient discriminatory power
for
epidemiological subdivision of a set of 31 unrelated strains
of
S. enteritidis of several different PTs (
8). PFGE
analysis
provided improved typing of these strains; however, more than
one enzyme was required to separate strains belonging to PTs 1,
4, 6, 7, and 8 (
8). PTs of
S. enteritidis predominantly
causing
infection in the United Kingdom include PTs 1, 4, 6, 6a, 8, and
13. By using PFGE analysis of macrorestriction fragments, the
PT
reference strains can be successfully differentiated. However,
studies
in this (
16) and in other (
14,
27) laboratories
have demonstrated that some strains causing infection generate
PFPs
which may be markedly different from those observed for that
particular
PT reference strain, suggesting that strains causing
infections in
humans have a higher degree of genotypic homogeneity
than is indicated
by phage typing.
The level of discrimination permitted by combined
XbaI and
SpeI macrorestriction fragment analysis by PFGE
(DI = 0.902) is
superior to that obtained by ribotyping
(DI = 0.259) and correlates
well with a recent study of 31 isolates of
S. enteritidis, for
which an overall
discrimination index for PFGE, calculated for
a combination of three
different enzymes, was 0.815 (
8).
In this study we have addressed the framework of
XbaI and
SpeI macrorestriction fragments, analyzed by using PFGE for
S. enteritidis by characterization of the 60 defined PT
reference strains. The
results suggest that PFGE analysis is
potentially a valuable tool
for the characterization of
S. enteritidis. Furthermore, by combining
results obtained for two or
more enzymes, the discriminatory power
of the method may be enhanced
for several of the most common PTs
causing infections in humans.
 |
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
We thank Anna New for technical assistance.
This study was supported by a grant from the Department of Health (DH
code 217) for the differentiation of S. enteritidis PT 4.
 |
FOOTNOTES |
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Laboratory of
Enteric Pathogens, Central Public Health Laboratory, 61 Colindale Ave., London NW9 5HT, United Kingdom. Phone: 0181 200 4400. Fax: 0181 905 9929. E-mail: jthrelfall{at}phls.co.uk.
 |
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