We describe two serogroup O157 Escherichia coli strains from Brazilian infants with diarrhea. A variety of assays indicate that these strains belong to the enteropathogenic, not the enterohemorrhagic, pathotype. These strains possess a novel bfpA allele encoding the type IV pilin characteristic of typical enteropathogenic E. coli strains. Our results emphasize the pitfalls of classifying pathog...

Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC), atypical enteropathogenic E. coli, and Shiga toxin-producing E. coli differ in their virulence factor profiles, clinical manifestations, and prognosis, and they require different therapeutic measures. We developed and evaluated a robust multiplex PCR to identify these pathogroups based on sequences complementary to escV, bfpB, stx1, and stx2.

Typical and atypical enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) strains differ in several characteristics. Typical EPEC, a leading cause of infantile diarrhea in developing countries, is rare in industrialized countries, where atypical EPEC seems to be a more important cause of diarrhea. For typical EPEC, the only reservoir is humans; for atypical EPEC, both animals and humans can be reservoirs. ...

Autotransporter (AT) protein-encoding genes of diarrheagenic Escherichia coli (DEC) pathotypes (cah, eatA, ehaABCDJ, espC, espI, espP, pet, pic, sat, and tibA) were detected in typical and atypical enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC) in frequencies between 0.8% and 39.3%. Although these ATs have been described in particular DEC pathotypes, their presence in EPEC indicates that they should not be co...

We report the draft genome sequences of three enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) isolates that display the O157 serogroup but do not have the Shiga toxin genes (stx), which are characteristic of O157 enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC). E. coli strain RN587/1 has the O157:H8 serotype and possesses the EAF plasmid characteristic of typical EPEC (J. B. Kaper, J. P. Nataro, and H. L. Mobley, Na...

Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) strains are important zoonotic enteric pathogens with the main reservoir in cattle. Here, we present the genomes of two STEC strains and one atypical enteropathogenic E. coli strain from cattle origin, obtained during a longitudinal study in German cattle herds.

Traditional enteropathogenic Escherichia coli serotypes demonstrate a plasmid-mediated localized adherence in cultured HeLa or HEp-2 cells and induce an attaching-effacing intestinal lesion, both of which are considered pathognomonic and causes of diarrhea. This study describes three E. coli strains from infantile diarrhea which share these properties but belong to serotypes (O2:H2, O2:H25 and ...

The cytoskeletal lesions associated with enteropathogenic Escherichia coli adhering to cultured HeLa epithelial cells were examined by immunofluorescence microscopy. The microfilament-associated proteins actin, alpha-actinin, talin, and ezrin were localized with adherent enteropathogenic E. coli, whereas tropomyosin, keratin and vimentin (intermediate filaments), tubulin (microtubules), and vin...