title: Molecular evidence of Plesiomonas shigelloides as a possible zoonotic agent.
abstract: The most frequently used method for establishing epidemiological relationships between Plesiomonas shigelloides strains is O:H serotyping. However, a number of strains are not serotypeable and isolates from diverse sources can display the same serovar. Moreover, since the zoonotic nature of Plesiomonas has been suggested and this hypothesis is based on the identical serovars found in animals and humans, we intend to use four DNA-based techniques: random amplified polymorphic DNA-PCR, enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus-PCR, repetitive extragenic palindromic-PCR, and pulsed field gel electrophoresis in order to screen 24 strains belonging to nine O:H serovars isolated from humans, animals, and the environment. In general, P. shigelloides showed a high genetic heterogeneity. Three pairs of strains, each containing a human and an animal isolate, displayed similar genotypes. This is the first report that provides molecular evidence that P. shigelloides may be zoonotic.
authors.affiliation: Section of Bacteriology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 751 23, Uppsala, Sweden. carlos.gonzalez-rey@sobi.com
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: González-Rey
authors.forename: Anja
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Siitonen
authors.forename: Alona
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pavlova
authors.forename: Ivan
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Ciznar
authors.forename: Stefan B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Svenson
authors.forename: Karel
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Krovacek
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D021901:DNA, Intergenic; D016521:Electrophoresis, Gel, Pulsed-Field / Q000379:methods; D004783:Environmental Microbiology; D014644:Genetic Variation; D016905:Gram-Negative Bacterial Infections / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000635:transmission / Q000662:veterinary*; D006801:Humans; D055029:Inverted Repeat Sequences; D058889:Molecular Typing / Q000379:methods*; D016981:Plesiomonas / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D019105:Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA Technique / Q000379:methods; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D015047:Zoonoses / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000635:transmission*
chemical_list: D021901:DNA, Intergenic