Faculty Bibliography

Heat-stable enterotoxin I (STI) can be assayed in intestinal loops of pigs and rabbits and in the gut of infant mice. To produce a simpler and more discriminating assay procedure, we used three gene probes corresponding to three forms of STI called STIa, STIb, and STIc. We tested 159 Brazilian isolates, of which 40 were positive in the infant mouse assay. The STIb and STIc probes are similar (93% DNA homology) and are both different from the STIa probe (70% DNA homology). Of 33 strains that were still active for STI 3 years after their isolation, 25 reacted with both the STIb and STIc probes, 4 reacted with the STIc probe only, and 7 reacted strongly with the STIa probe and weakly or not at all with the other probes. Two strains reacted with all three probes. Further analysis showed that each of these two strains contains a small plasmid that reacts with the STIa probe and a large plasmid that reacts with the STIc probe in one strain and weakly with both the STIa and STIc probes in the other strain. It was also shown that the STIa probe reacts with the cloning vehicle pACYC184 used for the cloning of STIc. We conclude that the gene probes used can identify most STI-producing strains and that in cases of positive responses with several probes careful scrutiny is necessary for analysis

By introducing a simple modification of existing methods, colony hybridization has been used to detect single copy genes coding for a heat-stable enterotoxin in wild-type strains isolated from patients with diarrhea. The modification described in this communication results in an approximately 100-fold increase in sensitivity, probably by increasing the total denatured plasmid DNA fixed to the paper.

A physical map of the 117-kilobase conjugative plasmid pCG86 was constructed using electron microscope heteroduplex analysis. This plasmid carries the genes elt, for heat-labile enterotoxin, and estA, for heat-stable enterotoxin, as well as the genes for resistance to tetracycline, streptomycin, sulfonamides, and mercury. These genes were mapped using deletions and Tn5 insertions as physical markers. Analysis of a heteroduplex between pCG86 and a previously described enterotoxin plasmid (EntP307) showed a 48-kilobase region of complete homology which included the genes elt and estA. An 8.8-kilobase BamHI fragment of EntP307 carrying elt, cloned by others, was also shown to be completely homologous with pCG86. The position of elt on the fragment was verified, and it was shown to carry estA as well. A 44-kilobase region of pCG86 showed partial homology with the region of EntP307 previously shown to contain conjugal transfer genes. The gene for tetracycline resistance is carried on a stem-loop structure with the dimensions of Tn10, and the genes for the other drug resistance markers are carried on a 14.6-kilobase segment that forms an insertion loop in heteroduplexes with EntP307. These studies suggest that pCG86 arose either by recombination between an enterotoxin plasmid of incompatibility group FI, like EntP307, and a multiple resistance factor of incompatibility group FII, or by transposition into EntP307 of two transposons

Escherichia coli strains belonging to serotype O128ac:H12 and producing heat-stable enterotoxin (ST) and colonization factor CFA/I were found in Sao Paulo in children with diarrhea, but not in normal children. Segregants occurred in such strains with a frequency of about 10%, which have lost the ability to produce ST and CFA/I at the same time. From one strain, both properties were transformed jointly in matings to an E. coli K-12 strain. All such ST+ CFA/I+ progeny had received two plasmids of length 97 and 64 kilobases in the matings. Insertion of a transposon, Tn5, carrying a gene for kanamycin resistance, into the two plasmids enabled us to select for kanamycin-resistant progeny in further matings. Analysis of such progeny strains in terms of plasmid content and production of ST and CFA/I revealed that the larger plasmid carries the genes for St and CFA/I and is not self-transmissible, whereas the smaller plasmid does not carry any recognizable phenotypic traits, but is conjugative and promotes cotransfer of the larger plasmid with a frequency of about 30%