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Appl. Environ. Microbiol. doi:10.1128/AEM.01542-06
Copyright (c) 2007, American Society for Microbiology and/or the Listed Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved.

Autotransporter encoding sequences are phylogenetically distributed among Escherichia coli clinical isolates and reference strains

INRS-Institut Armand-Frappier, Laval, Québec, CANADA

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: charles.dozois{at}iaf.inrs.ca.

	Abstract

Autotransporters are secreted bacterial proteins exhibiting diverse virulence functions. Various autotransporters have been identified among Escherichia coli associated with intestinal or extra-intestinal infections, however the specific distribution of autotranporter sequences among a diversity of E. coli strains has not been investigated. We have validated the use of a multiplex PCR assay to screen for the presence of autotranporter sequences. Herein, we determined the presence of 13 autotransporter sequences and five allelic variants of antigen 43 (Ag43) among 491 E. coli isolates from human urinary tract infections, diarrheagenic E. coli, avian pathogenic E. coli (APEC), and E. coli reference strains belonging to the ECOR collection. Clinical isolates were also classified into established phylogenetic groups. Results indicated that Ag43 alleles were significantly associated with clinical isolates (93%) compared to commensal isolates (56%), and that agn43K12 was the most common and widely distributed allele. agn43 allelic variants were also phylogenetically distributed. Sequences encoding espC, espP, sepA, agn43 alleles EDL933 and RS218 were significantly associated with diarrheagenic E. coli compared to other groups. tsh was highly associated with APEC, whereas sat was absent from APEC. vat, sat, and pic were associated with urinary tract isolates and were predominantly identified in isolates belonging to either phylogenetic groups B2 or D. Overall, results indicate that specific autotransporter sequences are associated with the source and/or phylogenetic background of strains, and suggest that in some cases autotransporter gene profiles may be useful for comparative analysis of E. coli strains from clinical, food, and environmental sources.

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