title: Assessment of environmental enterococci: bacterial antagonism, pathogenic capacity and antibiotic resistance.
abstract: The properties of 166 environmental strains belonging to the seven enterococcal species were studied. Enterococci originated mainly from surface- and waste-waters. They were screened for the presence of enterocins, virulence factors, and antibiotic resistance. The presence of different enterocin genes (entA, entB, entP, ent31, entL50AB) was frequently observed in our enterococcal isolates, 109 strains contained at least one enterocin gene. The distribution of enterocin genes varied according to the species, the genes were present mainly in E. hirae and E. faecium. By enterocin spot assay, 10 isolates inhibited the growth of Listeria strains. To evaluate the pathogenic ability of isolates, the distribution of selected virulence genes (cylA, gelE and esp) was investigated, eleven strains were positive in some of these genes, five of them belonged to E. faecalis. Regarding the antibiotic resistance of isolates, only two strains were multiresistant and two strains (E. hirae and E. casseliflavus) were resistant to vancomycin.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Molecular Biology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dúbravská cesta 21, 84551, Bratislava, Slovak Republic. domenico.pangallo@savba.sk
authors.forename: Domenico
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pangallo
authors.forename: Hana
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Drahovská
authors.forename: Jana
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Harichová
authors.forename: Edita
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Karelová
authors.forename: Katarína
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Chovanová
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ferianc
authors.forename: Ján
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Turna
authors.forename: Jozef
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Timko
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D000898:Antibiosis; D001430:Bacteriocins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D024881:Drug Resistance, Bacterial; D016983:Enterococcus / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics / Q000472:pathogenicity* / Q000502:physiology*; D008087:Listeria / Q000502:physiology; D008372:Manure / Q000382:microbiology; D037521:Virulence Factors / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D014871:Water Microbiology
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D001430:Bacteriocins; D008372:Manure; D037521:Virulence Factors