Reactivity of convalescent-phase hemolytic-uremic syndrome patient sera with the megaplasmid-encoded TagA protein of Shiga toxigenic Escherichia coli O157.

ABSTRACT: A cosmid library of Shiga toxigenic Escherichia coli (STEC) O157:H7 strain EDL933 DNA was screened for clones capable of reacting with convalescent-phase serum from a patient with hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS), in an attempt to identify candidate virulence genes. One of the immunoreactive clones contained a portion of the large plasmid pO157, and the immunoreactive gene product was identified as TagA. The function of this 898-amino-acid protein is unknown, but it exhibits 42% amino acid sequence identity and 63% similarity to a 312-amino-acid region of a ToxR-regulated lipoprotein of Vibrio cholerae. Antibodies to E. coli O157 TagA were detected in sera from other HUS patients with O157 STEC infection but not in those from patients whose illnesses were caused by other STEC types or in he

SUBMITTER: Paton AW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC140373 | biostudies-literature | 2002 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature