title: Phenotypic and molecular characteristics of Escherichia coli isolated from aquatic environment of Bangladesh.
abstract: Pathogenic Escherichia coli remains important etiological agent of infantile diarrhea in Bangladesh. Previous studies have focused mostly on clinical strains, but very little is known about their presence in aquatic environments. The present study was designed to characterize potentially pathogenic E. coli isolated between November 2001 and December 2003 from aquatic environments of 13 districts of Bangladesh. Serotyping of 96 randomly selected strains revealed O161 to be the predominant serotype (19%), followed by O55 and O44 (12% each), and 11% untypable. Serotype-based pathotyping of the E. coli strains revealed 47%, 30%, and 6% to belong to EPEC, ETEC, and EHEC pathotypes, respectively. The majority of the 160 strains tested were resistant to commonly used antimicrobial agents. Plasmid pro-filing showed a total of 17 different bands ranging from 1.3 to 40 kb. However, 35% of the strains did not contain any detectable plasmid, implying no correlation between plasmid and drug resistance. Although virulence gene profiling revealed 97 (61%) of the strains to harbor the gene encoding heat-stable enterotoxin (ST), 2 for the gene encoding Shiga toxin (Stx), and none for the gene for heat-labile enterotoxin (LT), serotype-based pathotyping of E. coli was not fully supported by this gene profiling. A dendrogram derived from the PFGE patterns of 22 strains of three predominant serogroups indicated two major clusters, one containing mainly serogroup O55 and the other O8. Three strains of identical PFGE profiles belonging to serogroup O55 were isolated from three distinct areas, which may be of epidemiological significance. Finally, it may be concluded that serotype-based pathotyping may be useful for E. coli strains of clinical origin; however, it is not precise enough for reliably identifying environmental strains as diarrheagenic.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Enteric Microbiology, Laboratory Sciences Division, International Center for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Mohakhali, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh. munirul@icddrb.org
authors.forename: Munirul
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Alam
authors.lastname: Nur-A-Hasan
authors.forename: Sunjukta
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ahsan
authors.forename: Gururaja Perumal
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Pazhani
authors.forename: Kazumichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tamura
authors.forename: Thadavarayan
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ramamurthy
authors.forename: Donald James
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Gomes
authors.forename: Sabita R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Rahman
authors.forename: Atiqul
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Islam
authors.forename: Fahmina
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Akhtar
authors.forename: Sumio
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shinoda
authors.forename: Haruo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Watanabe
authors.forename: Shah M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Faruque
authors.forename: Gopinath Balakrish
authors.initials: GB
authors.lastname: Nair
mesh_terms: D001459:Bangladesh; D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial; D016521:Electrophoresis, Gel, Pulsed-Field / Q000379:methods; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000472:pathogenicity; D010641:Phenotype; D010957:Plasmids; D012703:Serotyping / Q000379:methods; D037521:Virulence Factors / Q000235:genetics; D014871:Water Microbiology
chemical_list: D037521:Virulence Factors