BGI & collaborators announce that 2011 outbreak E. Coli strain more like a 2001 strain isolated in Germany than the 2002 Central Africa strain

[Emily]

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bgi-and-collaborators-announce-new-clues-found-in-tracing-the-origin-of-the-deadly-e-coli-strain-and-appeal-for-the-sharing-of-additional-data-123180703.html

Following previous efforts (http://www.genomics.cn/en/news_show.php?type=show&id=644 and http://www.genomics.cn/en/news_show.php?type=show&id=647), BGI, based in Shenzhen, China, and its collaborators at the University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf, as well as a growing number of researchers around the world "crowdsourcing" this data, are exploring in-depth the European disease outbreak helping trace the origin and spread of the lethal E. coli strain. Different sources have reported that two strains, 01-09591 from Germany isolated in 2001 and 55989 from Central Africa in 2002, are highly similar to the 2011 outbreak strain. Based on the most recently curated assembly publically released by BGI yesterday (ftp://ftp.genomics.org.cn/pub/Ecoli_TY-2482), these strains have an identical Multi Locus Sequence Typing (ST678) based on analysis of seven important "housekeeping" genes*.

BGI's latest analysis indicates that the two German strains (01-09591 originally isolated in 2001 and TY2482 from the 2011 outbreak) have identical profiles for all 12 virulence/fitness genes and seven MLST housekeeping genes. However, at some point over this 10-year period the new 2011 outbreak strain seems to have developed the ability to resist many additional types of antibiotics. The latest data is now pointing to this candidate, as it now seems the African strain (strain 55989) is genetically more "distant" as the Shiga-toxin-producing gene and tellurite-resistance-genes were shown to be absent. ....

 

[Treyfish]

Re: BGI & collaborators announce that 2011 outbreak E. Coli strain more like a 2001 strain isolated in Germany than the 2002 Central Africa strain

<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=6 cellPadding=0 width=468><TBODY><TR><TD background=http://211.234.126.7/www/news/images/view_title.gif><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" height=20><TBODY><TR><TD class=style7 height=70 align=middle>‘Deadly virus strain detected in Korea’</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top>

Korean medical doctors said Sunday that a South Korean patient in 2004 was treated for the same strain of stomach virus that has recently led to the deadly food poisoning outbreak in Europe.​

Professors Bae Yoo-kyun at Chonnam National University Hwasun Hospital and Jang Hee-chang at Chonnam National University Hospital said the 29-year-old woman was hospitalized after suffering stomach pains and internal bleeding.​

She was diagnosed with hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS), which is normally caused by enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) O157:H7. But doctors later found a different strain, E. coli O104:H4, in her stool sample.​

It is the same virus that has killed at least 18 people and sickened some 1,600 others across Europe. Doctors said the South Korean patient was released after four weeks of treatment.​

Bae has written a paper on the case and it was published in a medical journal in 2006.​

"The patient had eaten a hamburger and first she was treated for diarrhea," Bae said. "Her symptoms got worse, and they were more serious than usual symptoms for typical E. coli infection."​

Jang said this was the first paper in the world to claim that the EHEC O104 strain could also cause HUS.​

"No major research on E. coli followed that paper," Jang said. "And there's not been any outbreak before the recent one in Europe."​

Asked if this was a mutant virus, Jang said he would have to compare the Korean case with other E. coli cases.​

"There are different kinds of O104:H4 and they seem to have particular genes that cause HUS," the professor said:tiphat:​

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2011/06/117_88331.html

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