title: The genotypic characterization of Cronobacter spp. isolated in China.
abstract: Cronobacter spp. (Enterobacter sakazakii) is an important pathogen contaminating powdered infant formula (PIF). To describe the genotypic diversity of Cronobacter isolated in China, we identified the isolates using fusA allele sequencing, and subtyped all of the isolates using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), multi-locus sequence typing (MLST), and multiple-locus variable-number tandem-repeat analysis (MLVA). A total of 105 isolates were identified, which included C. sakazakii (58 isolates), C. malonaticus (30 isolates), C. dublinensis (11 isolates), C. turicensis (5 isolates), and C. muytjensii (1 isolate). These isolates were showed to have 85 PFGE-patterns, 71 sequence types (STs), and 55 MLVA-patterns. Comparisons among the three molecular subtyping methods revealed that the PFGE method was the most distinguishable tool in identifying clusters of Cronobacter spp. through DNA fingerprinting, and MLST method came second. However, ESTR-1, ESTR-2, ESTR-3, and ESTR-4 were not effective loci for subtyping Cronobacter spp. such that the MLVA method requires further improvement.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, National Institute for Communicable Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Jinghua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, National Institute for Communicable Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Xiaoli
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Du
authors.affiliation: Jinan Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Jinan, China.
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Jinan Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Jinan, China.
authors.forename: Guangchun
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Shijiazhuang Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shijiazhuang, China.
authors.forename: Guoping
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lv
authors.affiliation: Shijiazhuang Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shijiazhuang, China.
authors.forename: Baohong
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Sichuan Province Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Chengdu, China.
authors.forename: Xiaorong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, National Institute for Communicable Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, National Institute for Communicable Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Zhigang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Cui
mesh_terms: D002681:China; D059126:Cronobacter / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D062665:Epidemiological Monitoring; D060005:Genotyping Techniques; D005843:Geography; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D041943:Infant Formula; D020080:Tandem Repeat Sequences / Q000235:genetics