Enteroaggregative Escherichia coli have evolved independently as distinct complexes within the E. coli population with varying ability to cause disease

Marie Anne Chattaway; Claire Jenkins; Dunstan Rajendram; Alejandro Cravioto; Kaisar Ali Talukder; Tim Dallman; Anthony Underwood; Steve Platt; Iruka N Okeke; John Wain

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0112967

Enteroaggregative Escherichia coli have evolved independently as distinct complexes within the E. coli population with varying ability to cause disease

PLoS One. 2014 Nov 21;9(11):e112967. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0112967. eCollection 2014.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Gastrointestinal Bacteria Reference Unit, Public Health England, London, United Kingdom.
² Genomic Service Unit, Public Health England, London, United Kingdom.
³ International Vaccine Institute, Gwanak-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea; Centre for Food and Water Borne Diseases, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
⁴ International Vaccine Institute, Gwanak-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
⁵ Bioinformatics, PHE, London, United Kingdom.
⁶ Haverford College, Haverford, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
⁷ Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom.

Abstract

Enteroaggregative E. coli (EAEC) is an established diarrhoeagenic pathotype. The association with virulence gene content and ability to cause disease has been studied but little is known about the population structure of EAEC and how this pathotype evolved. Analysis by Multi Locus Sequence Typing of 564 EAEC isolates from cases and controls in Bangladesh, Nigeria and the UK spanning the past 29 years, revealed multiple successful lineages of EAEC. The population structure of EAEC indicates some clusters are statistically associated with disease or carriage, further highlighting the heterogeneous nature of this group of organisms. Different clusters have evolved independently as a result of both mutational and recombination events; the EAEC phenotype is distributed throughout the population of E. coli.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Bangladesh
Escherichia coli / classification
Escherichia coli / genetics*
Escherichia coli / pathogenicity*
Escherichia coli Infections / microbiology*
Escherichia coli Proteins / genetics
Evolution, Molecular
Humans
Multilocus Sequence Typing / methods*
Mutation
Nigeria
Phylogeny
Polymerase Chain Reaction
Recombination, Genetic
Species Specificity
United Kingdom
Virulence / genetics

Substances

Escherichia coli Proteins

Grants and funding

This study was supported by Gastrointestinal Bacteria Reference Unit, Public Health England, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Society for Applied Microbiology (Supervisor fund), the US National Science Foundation (Awards #1329248 and #0948460) and Society for General Microbiology (Presidents fund). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.