Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) and enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC) strains may be responsible for foodborne infections in humans.

Twenty-eight STEC and 75 EPEC strains previously isolated from French shellfish-harvesting areas and their watersheds and belonging to 68 distinguishable serotypes were characterized in this study.

High-throughput real-time PCR was used to search for the presence of 75 E. coli virulence-associated gene targets, and genes encoding Shiga toxin (stx) and intimin (eae) were subtyped using PCR tests and DNA sequencing, respectively.

The results showed a high level of diversity between strains, with 17 unique virulence gene profiles for STEC and 56 for EPEC. Seven STEC and 15 EPEC strains were found to display a large number or a particular combination of genetic markers of virulence and the presence of stx and/or eae variants, suggesting their potential pathogenicity for humans. Among these, an O26:H11 stx1a eae-β1 strain was associated with a large number of virulence-associated genes (n = 47), including genes carried on the locus of enterocyte effacement (LEE) or other pathogenicity islands, such as OI-122, OI-71, OI-43/48, OI-50, OI-57, and the high-pathogenicity island (HPI). One O91:H21 STEC strain containing 4 stx variants (stx1a, stx2a, stx2c, and stx2d) was found to possess genes associated with pathogenicity islands OI-122, OI-43/48, and OI-15. Among EPEC strains harboring a large number of virulence genes (n, 34 to 50), eight belonged to serotype O26:H11, O103:H2, O103:H25, O145:H28, O157:H7, or O153:H2.

Molecular profiling of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli and enteropathogenic E. coli strains isolated from French coastal environments

Appl. Environ. Microbiol. July 2016 vol. 82 no. 13 3913-3927, DOI: 10.1128/AEM.00271-16

Balière, A. Rincé, S. Delannoy, P. Fach and M. Gourmelon

http://aem.asm.org/content/82/13/3913.abstract?etoc