Transfer of a CFA/I-ST plasmid promoted by a conjugative plasmid in a strain of Escherichia coli of serotype O128ac:H12.
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%.
D003114:Colony-Forming Units Assay; D003227:Conjugation, Genetic; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D004768:Enterotoxins / Q000235:genetics*; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D010957:Plasmids; D012703:Serotyping
D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D004768:Enterotoxins