VIRULENCE PATTERNS FROM SEPTICEMIC ESCHERICHIA-COLI O78 STRAINS

Several septicemic Escherichia coil O78 strains, isolated from differe nt sources, were characterized phenotypically and genotypically. Two a vian isolates, one of which is known to carry the AC/I fimbriae, hybri dized with the sfa determinant in colony dot-blot assay. Southern hybr idizations with specific sfa probes, following pulsed-field gel electr ophoresis (PFGE), showed positive hybridization to the same fragment i n each of these strains. Determination of the N-terminal amino acid se quence of the AC/I major subunit gene revealed high similarity to the sequence of the SfaA-II protein. These data suggest that the adhesin g ene cluster, coding for AC/I fimbriae, belongs to the S-fimbrial adhes in family.