Multiple determinants of verotoxin-producing Escherichia coli O157:H7 attachment-effacement

Verotoxin-producing Escherichia coli strains of the serotype O157:H7 belong to a class of gastrointestinal pathogens that adhere to epithelial cells in a characteristic pattern known as attaching and effacing. Recent insight into the nature of E. coli O157:H7 adhesion was provided by the cloning and sequencing of the chromosomal eaeA (for E. coli attaching and effacing) gene homolog (G. Beebakhee, M. Louie, J. De Azavedo, and J. Brunton, FEMS Microbiol. Lett. 91:63-68, 1992, and J. Yu and J. B. Kaper, Mol. Microbiol. 6:411-417, 1992) and isolation of a 60-MDa plasmid referred to as pO157 (I. Toth, M. L. Cohen, H. S. Rumschlag, L. W. Riley, E. H. White, J. H. Carr, W. W. Bond, and I. K. Wachsmuth, Infect. Immun. 58:1223-1231, 1990, and S. Tzipori, H. Karch, K. I. Wachsmuth, R. M. Robins-Browne, A. D. O'Brien, H. Lior, M. L. Cohen, J. Smithers, and M. M. Levine, Infect. Immun. 55:3117-3125, 1987) and an approximately 94-kDa outer membrane protein (94-kDa OMP; P. Sherman, F. Cockerill III, R. Soni, and J. Brunton, Infect. Immun. 59:890-899, 1991). In this study, we examined the gene products of both eaeA and pO157 in relation to the 94-kDa OMP and as candidate effectors for O157:H7 attachment-effacement. Peptide sequencing and immunoassay demonstrated that the C. coli O157:H7 eaeA gene product is distinct from the 94-kDa OMP. Using ultrastructural analyses, we found that both parent and pO157 plasmid-cured O157:H7 strains demonstrated attaching and effacing adhesion to host epithelial cells and reacted equally well to rabbit antiserum raised against the 94-kDa OMP. By both transmission electron microscopy and light microscopy, E. coli HB101 transformed separately with the cloned eaeA gene and the pO157 plasmid did not form attaching and effacing lesions on cultured epithelial cells in vitro and rabbit intestinal tissues in vivo. Since additional determinants may mediate the attaching and effacing phenotype, we examined transposon TnphoA mutants constructed from E. coli O157:H7 strain CL8. Two TnphoA mutants were found deficient in bacterial factors that are necessary for O157:H7 attachment-effacement and likely distinct from the eaeA gene product.