Combined multilocus sequence typing and O serogrouping distinguishes Escherichia coli subtypes associated with infant urosepsis and/or meningitis.
The genetic relatedness of 223 invasive Escherichia coli strains that cause either meningitis or urosepsis without meningitis in young infants was determined by multilocus sequence typing (MLST), ribotyping, and phylogenetic polymerase chain reaction grouping. We also determined the serotypes and virulence genotypes (on the basis of 11 virulence genes). The strains belonged to 29 sequence type complexes (STc), 20 ribotypes, 26 O serogroups, and 39 virulence genotypes. MLST combined with O serogrouping identified 49 subtypes, or "sequence O types." Some sequence O types were almost exclusively associated with either urosepsis (STc27(O2), STc27(O6), and STc29(O2)) or meningitis (STc29(O18)). In contrast, STc29(O45) was equally frequent in these 2 infection sites. Similarly, several virulence genotypes were specifically associated with one of these syndromes. These results point to the existence of specialized invasive subtypes that cause urosepsis or meningitis in infants and identify a new dually virulent invasive clone.
Bidet
Philippe
P
Laboratoire d'Etudes de Génétique Bactérienne dans les Infections de l'Enfant (EA 3105), Université Denis Diderot-Paris 7, Paris, France.
Mahjoub-Messai
Farah
F
Blanco
Jorge
J
Blanco
Jesús
J
Dehem
Marie
M
Aujard
Yannick
Y
Bingen
Edouard
E
Bonacorsi
Stéphane
S
D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000145:classification / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D016920:Meningitis, Bacterial / Q000382:microbiology*; D017720:Molecular Epidemiology; D010802:Phylogeny; D021521:Ribotyping; D018805:Sepsis / Q000382:microbiology*; D012703:Serotyping / Q000145:classification; D014552:Urinary Tract Infections / Q000382:microbiology; D014774:Virulence