Examination of Serpulina pilosicoli for attachment and invasion determinants of Enterobacteria

• Published in: FEMS microbiology letters Vol. 165; no. 1; pp. 59 - 63
• Main Authors: Hartland, E.L, Mikosza, A.S.J, Robins-Browne, R.M, Hampson, D.J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.08.1998; Blackwell; Oxford University Press
• Subjects: animal diseases; animal health; Animals; Attachment; Bacterial Adhesion - genetics; bacterial infections; Bacteriology; Biological and medical sciences; Blotting, Southern; Brachyspira - genetics; Brachyspira - physiology; Colon; Colon - microbiology; Deoxyribonucleic acid; DNA; DNA probes; DNA, Bacterial - genetics; Dogs; E coli; eae gene; Enterobacteriaceae - genetics; Escherichia coli; Escherichia coli - genetics; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Gene probe; Gene sequencing; Genes, Bacterial - genetics; Genetics; Homology; human health and safety; Humans; Hybridization; Intestinal Mucosa - microbiology; Intestine; Invasion; Lamina propria; medicine; Microbiology; Mucosa; Nucleotide sequence; Plasmids - genetics; Probes; Serpulina pilosicoli; Shigella flexneri; Shigella flexneri - genetics; Spirochetes; Swine; Virulence; Yersinia enterocolitica; Yersinia enterocolitica - genetics; Attachment; Gene probe; Hybridization; Invasion; Pathogenicity; Serpulina pilosicoli; Spirochaetales; Gene; Infectivity; Bacteria; Host agent relation; Adhesion
• ISSN: 0378-1097; 1574-6968
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1574-6968.1998.tb13127.x

The spirochaete, Serpulina pilosicoli, is the agent of intestinal spirochaetosis, a diarrhoeal disease of humans and other species. By mechanisms as yet unknown, large numbers of these spirochaetes intimately attach to the colonic mucosa by one cell end. In some infected individuals, the spirochaetes may invade the lamina propria and adjacent tissues, and they may cause spirochaetaemia. To examine S. pilosicoli for pathogenic determinants homologous with Enterobacteria, DNA was extracted from six strains of S. pilosicoli and hybridised at low stringency with DNA probes derived from the inv, ail and yadA genes of Yersinia enterocolitica, the eae gene from enteropathogenic Escherichia coli and a probe derived from the virulence plasmid of Shigella flexneri. No hybridisation of the enterobacterial probes to S. pilosicoli DNA was detected, indicating that these gene sequences, which are known to be involved in the attachment and invasion processes of the other intestinal pathogens, were not present in the spirochaetes.