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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, September 1999, p. 3855-3861, Vol. 65, No. 9
Institut für Hygiene und Mikrobiologie
der Universität Würzburg, 97080 Würzburg,
Germany,1 and Institute of Medical
Microbiology, The 2nd Medical Faculty, Charles University, 15006 Prague, Czech Republic2
Received 19 May 1999/Accepted 7 July 1999
We investigated the ability of a detoxified derivative of a Shiga
toxin 2 (Stx2)-encoding bacteriophage to infect and lysogenize enteric
Escherichia coli strains and to develop infectious progeny from such lysogenized strains. The stx2 gene of
the patient E. coli O157:H7 isolate 3538/95 was replaced by
the chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (cat) gene from
plasmid pACYC184. Phage
0099-2240/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Transduction of Enteric Escherichia coli Isolates with
a Derivative of Shiga Toxin 2-Encoding Bacteriophage
3538 Isolated
from Escherichia coli O157:H7
3538(
stx2::cat) was
isolated after induction of E. coli O157:H7 strain 3538/95 with mitomycin. A variety of strains of enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC), enteroinvasive E. coli (EIEC),
Stx-producing E. coli (STEC), enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC), enteroaggregative E. coli (EAEC), and
E. coli from the physiological stool microflora were
infected with
3538(
stx2::cat),
and plaque formation and lysogenic conversion of wild-type E. coli strains were investigated. With the exception of one EIEC
strain, none of the E. coli strains supported the formation
of plaques when used as indicators for
3538(
stx2::cat). However, 2 of 11 EPEC, 11 of 25 STEC, 2 of 7 EAEC, 1 of 3 EIEC, and 1 of 6 E. coli isolates from the stool microflora of healthy individuals integrated the phage in their chromosomes and expressed resistance to chloramphenicol. Following induction with mitomycin, these lysogenic strains released infectious particles of
3538(
stx2::cat) that formed plaques on a lawn of E. coli laboratory strain
C600. The results of our study demonstrate that
3538(
stx2::cat) was able to infect and lysogenize particular enteric strains of pathogenic and nonpathogenic E. coli and that the lysogens produced
infectious phage progeny. Stx-encoding bacteriophages are able to
spread stx genes among enteric E. coli strains.
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Institut
für Hygiene und Mikrobiologie der Universität
Würzburg, Josef-Schneider-Str. 2, D-97080 Würzburg,
Germany. Phone: 49/931/201-5160. Fax: 49/931/201-3445. E-mail:
hschmidt{at}hygiene.uni-wuerzburg.de.
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