Project description:Discriminating Escherichia albertii from other Enterobacteriaceae is difficult. Systematic analyses showed that E. albertii represents a substantial portion of strains currently identified as eae-positive Escherichia coli and includes Shiga toxin 2f-producing strains. Because E. albertii possesses the eae gene, many strains might have been misidentified as enterohemorrhagic or enteropathogenic E. coli.
Project description:Escherichia albertii has been associated with diarrhea in humans but not with disease or infection in animals. However, in December 2004, E. albertii was found, by biochemical and genetic methods, to be the probable cause of death for redpoll finches (Carduelis flammea) in Alaska. Subsequent investigation found this organism in dead and subclinically infected birds of other species from North America and Australia. Isolates from dead finches in Scotland, previously identified as Escherichia coli O86:K61, also were shown to be E. albertii. Similar to the isolates from humans, E. albertii isolates from birds possessed intimin (eae) and cytolethal distending toxin (cdtB) genes but lacked Shiga toxin (stx) genes. Genetic analysis of eae and cdtB sequences, multilocus sequence typing, and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis patterns showed that the E. albertii strains from birds are heterogeneous but similar to isolates that cause disease in humans.
Project description:Although Escherichia albertii is an emerging intestinal pathogen, it has been associated only with sporadic human infections. In this study, we determined that a human gastroenteritis outbreak at a restaurant in Japan had E. albertii as the major causative agent.
Project description:Escherichia coli, Escherichia albertii, and Escherichia fergusonii are closely related bacteria that can cause illness in humans, such as bacteremia, urinary tract infections and diarrhea. Current identification strategies for these three species vary in complexity and typically rely on the use of multiple phenotypic and genetic tests. To facilitate their rapid identification, we developed a multiplex PCR assay targeting conserved, species-specific genes. We used the Daydreamer™ (Pattern Genomics, USA) software platform to concurrently analyze whole genome sequence assemblies (WGS) from 150 Enterobacteriaceae genomes (107 E. coli, 5 Shigella spp., 21 E. albertii, 12 E. fergusonii and 5 other species) and design primers for the following species-specific regions: a 212bp region of the cyclic di-GMP regulator gene (cdgR, AW869_22935 from genome K-12 MG1655, CP014225) for E. coli/Shigella; a 393bp region of the DNA-binding transcriptional activator of cysteine biosynthesis gene (EAKF1_ch4033 from genome KF1, CP007025) for E. albertii; and a 575bp region of the palmitoleoyl-acyl carrier protein (ACP)-dependent acyltransferase (EFER_0790 from genome ATCC 35469, CU928158) for E. fergusonii. We incorporated the species-specific primers into a conventional multiplex PCR assay and assessed its performance with a collection of 97 Enterobacteriaceae strains. The assay was 100% sensitive and specific for detecting the expected species and offers a quick and accurate strategy for identifying E. coli, E. albertii, and E. fergusonii in either a single reaction or by in silico PCR with sequence assemblies.
Project description:Natural reservoirs of Escherichia albertii remain unclear. In this study, we detected E. albertii by PCR in 248 (57.7%) of 430 raccoons from Osaka, Japan, and isolated 143 E. albertii strains from the 62 PCR-positive samples. These data indicate that raccoons could be a natural reservoir of E. albertii in Japan.