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Genomic fingerprinting of shigatoxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) strains: comparison of pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and fluorescent amplified-fragment-length polymorphism (FAFLP)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2001

E. HEIR ,
B.-A. LINDSTEDT ,
T. VARDUND ,
Y. WASTESON  and
G. KAPPERUD
E. HEIR
Affiliation:
Department of Bacteriology, National Institute of Public Health, N-0403 Oslo, Norway
B.-A. LINDSTEDT
Affiliation:
Department of Bacteriology, National Institute of Public Health, N-0403 Oslo, Norway
T. VARDUND
Affiliation:
Department of Bacteriology, National Institute of Public Health, N-0403 Oslo, Norway
Y. WASTESON
Affiliation:
Department of Pharmacology, Microbiology and Food Hygiene, The Norwegian School of Veterinary Sciences, N-0033 Oslo, Norway
G. KAPPERUD
Affiliation:
Department of Bacteriology, National Institute of Public Health, N-0403 Oslo, Norway Department of Pharmacology, Microbiology and Food Hygiene, The Norwegian School of Veterinary Sciences, N-0033 Oslo, Norway
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Abstract

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For epidemiological studies of shigatoxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) infections, rapid, reproducible and highly discriminative methods are required. In this study, we examined the performance of the fluorescent amplified-fragment-length polymorphism (FAFLP) technique for epidemiological fingerprinting of STEC isolates and compared it to the acknowledged fingerprinting method pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). A total of 88 STEC isolates, including 82 of serotype O157[ratio ]H7 or O157[ratio ]H−, were subjected to fingerprinting by both PFGE and FAFLP. The isolates included sporadic and epidemiologically related strains of both animal and human origin from widespread geographical locations. The FAFLP fingerprint patterns confirmed the clonal nature of STEC O157 strains. Among the 82 O157[ratio ]H7/H− isolates belonging to 49 distinct groups of epidemiological unrelated isolates, 24 FAFLP profiles and 51 PFGE patterns were obtained. Thus, PFGE had a higher discriminatory power than FAFLP and overall correlated better to available epidemiological data. Consequently, the PFGE technique remains the method of choice in epidemiological investigations of STEC infections.

Type
Research Article
Information
Epidemiology & Infection , Volume 125 , Issue 3 , December 2000 , pp. 537 - 548
Copyright
2000 Cambridge University Press