Relationship between Heat-Labile Enterotoxin Secretion Capacity and Virulence in Wild Type Porcine-Origin Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli Strains

Authors

Prageeth Wijemanne, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Jun Xing, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Emil M. Berberov, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
David B. Marx, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
David H. Francis, South Dakota State UniversityFollow
Rodney A. Moxley, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

Date of this Version

3-13-2015

Citation

Wijemanne P, Xing J, Berberov EM, Marx DB, Francis DH, Moxley RA (2015) Relationship between Heat-Labile Enterotoxin Secretion Capacity and Virulence in Wild Type Porcine-Origin Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli Strains. PLoS ONE 10(3): e0117663. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0117663

Comments

© 2015 Wijemanne et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. Used by permission.

Abstract

Heat-labile enterotoxin (LT) is an important virulence factor secreted by some strains of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC). The prototypic human-origin strain H10407 secretes LT via a type II secretion system(T2SS). We sought to determine the relationship between the capacity to secrete LT and virulence in porcine-origin wild type (WT) ETEC strains. Sixteen WT ETEC strains isolated from cases of severe diarrheal disease were analyzed by GM1ganglioside enzyme- linked immunosorbent assay tomeasure LT concentrations in culture supernatants. All strains had detectable LT in supernatants by 2 h of culture and 1 strain, which was particularly virulent in gnotobiotic piglets (3030-2), had the highest LT secretion level all porcine-origin WT strains tested (P