The Superior Adherence Phenotype of E. coli O104:H4 is Directly Mediated by the Aggregative Adherence Fimbriae Type I.

ABSTRACT: Whereas the O104:H4 enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) outbreak strain from 2011 expresses aggregative adherence fimbriae of subtype I (AAF/I), its close relative, the O104:H4 enteroaggregative Escherichia coli (EAEC) strain 55989, encodes AAF of subtype III. Tight adherence mediated by AAF/I in combination with Shiga toxin 2 production has been suggested to result in the outbreak strain's exceptional pathogenicity. Furthermore, the O104:H4 outbreak strain adheres significantly better to cultured epithelial cells than archetypal EAEC strains expressing different AAF subtypes. To test whether AAF/I expression is associated with the different virulence phenotypes of the outbreak strain, we heterologously expressed AAF subtypes I, III, IV, and V in an AAF-negative EAEC 55

SUBMITTER: Schiller P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7834096 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature