[Pathotyping of isolated Escherichia coli from domesticated calves and poultry using modern DNAmicroarray technique]

ABSTRACT

Detection of virulence factors harbored in Escherichia coli strains is important to determine a genotyping profile, and the pathotype of an Escherichia coli isolate. The objective of this study was to determine the pathotype of E. coli strains isolated from calves and poultry domesticated in Iran by using DNA microarray technology. In this study, 67 strains of isolated E. coli from calves and poultry [51 from calves and 16 from poultry respectively] were monitored for the presence of different virulence factors. The pathotype of each strain was made using DNA Microarray technology. The array used 109 probes for the common virulence genes of Escherichia coli and 154 probes for virulence genes that were specifically included pathotypes. Results showed that Escherichia coli strains from calves were 47% EHEC, 15.68% EPEC, 15.68% UPEC, 1.96% ETEC, 1.96% a combination of EPEC and UPEC, and 17.64% of strains non-specific to any of the pathotypes. In the samples from poultry, 62.5% of strains were pathotyped as APEC, 31.25% ExPEC, and 6.25% non-specific to any pathotype. This study revealed that DNA Microarray, as compared with other traditional molecular techniques, is a powerful tool for demonstration of the genotyping profile and pathotype of Escherichia coli strains