Isolation and Characterization of a B-D-Glucuronidase-Producing Strain of Escherichia coli Serotype O157:H7 in the United States

Authors

• Peggy S. Hayes, Centers for Disease Control and PreventionFollow
• Kristina Blom, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Peter Feng, U.S. Food and Drug Administration
• Jay Lewis, State of Washington Department of Health
• Nancy A. Strockbine, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Bala Swaminathan, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Date of this Version

1995

Citation

JOURNAL OF CLINICAL MICROBIOLOGY, Vol. 33, No. 12, Dec. 1995, p. 3347–3348

Abstract

A phenotypic variant of Escherichia coli serotype O157:H7 (G5101) was isolated from a patient with bloody diarrhea. Strain G5101 does not ferment sorbitol but is β-D-glucuronidase and urease positive. Serotyping and colony hybridization using a serotype-specific DNA probe confirmed that the isolate was O157:H7. G5101 produces Shiga-like toxins I and II and contains an eae gene that is highly conserved in the O157:H7 serotype. This strain would have been missed by laboratories that screen for the sorbitol-negative, β-D-glucuronidase- negative phenotype in isolating E. coli O157:H7 from clinical and food specimens.