Development of a universal intimin antiserum and PCR primers.

ABSTRACT: Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) and enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) constitute a significant risk to human health worldwide. A hallmark of both pathogens is their ability to produce characteristic attaching-and-effacing (A/E) lesions in intestinal epithelial cells. Genes encoding A/E lesion formation map to a chromosomal pathogenicity island termed the locus of enterocyte effacement (LEE). Intimin, an LEE-encoded bacterial adhesion molecule, mediates the intimate bacterium-host cell interaction characteristic of A/E lesions. On the basis of characterization of the C-terminal 280-amino-acid cell binding domain of intimin (Int280(661-939)), four distinct Int280 types (types alpha, beta, gamma, and delta) have been identified. Importantly, Int280alpha and Int280beta antisera specifi

SUBMITTER: Batchelor M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC85821 | biostudies-literature | 1999 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature