Publications by authors named "DebRoy C"

Background: Extraintestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli (ExPEC) is the leading cause of bacteremia worldwide, with older populations having increased risk of invasive bacterial disease. Increasing resistance to first-line antibiotics and emergence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) strains represent major treatment challenges. ExPEC O serotypes are key targets for potential multivalent conjugate vaccine development.

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Hemorrhagic pneumonia (HP) is a rare but highly lethal disease, mainly of dogs and cats, caused by hemolytic Escherichia coli strains that contain (encoding cytotoxic necrotizing factor 1). After encountering fatal HP in two dogs, we used contemporary molecular methods, including multilocus sequence typing and whole-genome sequencing, to compare the corresponding case isolates with published HP clinical isolates and newly obtained fecal E. coli isolates from 20 humans and animals in the index HP case household.

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Super-shed (SS) Escherichia coli O157 (E. coli O157) demonstrate a strong, aggregative, locus of enterocyte effacement (LEE)-independent adherence phenotype on bovine recto-anal junction squamous epithelial (RSE) cells, and harbor polymorphisms in non-LEE-adherence-related loci, including in the type 1 fimbriae operon. To elucidate the role of type 1 fimbriae in strain- and host-specific adherence, we evaluated the entire Fim operon (FimB-H) and its adhesion (FimH) deletion mutants in four E.

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Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) are foodborne pathogens that cause illnesses in humans ranging from mild to hemorrhagic enteritis with complications of hemolytic uremic syndrome and even death. Cattle are a major reservoir of STEC, which reside in the hindgut and are shed in the feces, a major source of food and water contaminations. Seven serogroups, O26, O45, O103, O111, O121, O145 and O157, called 'top-7', are responsible for the majority of human STEC infections in North America.

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The gold standard method for serotyping has relied on antisera-based typing of the O- and H-antigens, which is labor intensive and often unreliable. In the post-genomic era, sequence-based assays are potentially faster to provide results, could combine O-serogrouping and H-typing in a single test, and could simultaneously screen for the presence of other genetic markers of interest such as virulence factors. Whole genome sequencing is one approach; however, this method has limited multiplexing capabilities, and only a small fraction of the sequence is informative for subtyping or identifying virulence potential.

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carrying prophage with genes that encode for Shiga toxins are categorized as Shiga toxin-producing (STEC) pathotype. Illnesses caused by STEC in humans, which are often foodborne, range from mild to bloody diarrhea with life-threatening complications of renal failure and hemolytic uremic syndrome and even death, particularly in children. As many as 158 of the total 187 serogroups of are known to carry Shiga toxin genes, which makes STEC a major pathotype of .

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O-antigens present on the surface of Escherichia coli provide antigenic specificity for the strain and are the main components for O-serogroup designation. Serotyping using O-group-specific antisera for the identification of E. coli O-serogroups has been traditionally the gold-standard for distinguishing E.

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Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli O157:H7 (O157) are zoonotic foodborne pathogens and of major public health concern that cause considerable intestinal and extra-intestinal illnesses in humans. O157 colonize the recto-anal junction (RAJ) of asymptomatic cattle who shed the bacterium into the environment through fecal matter. A small subset of cattle, termed super-shedders (SS), excrete O157 at a rate (≥ 104 CFU/g of feces) that is several orders of magnitude greater than other colonized cattle and play a major role in the prevalence and transmission of O157.

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Diarrhea is responsible for the death of approximately 900,000 children per year worldwide. In children, typical enteropathogenic (EPEC) is a common cause of diarrhea and is associated with a higher hazard of death. Typical EPEC infection is rare in animals and poorly reproduced in experimental animal models.

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Article Synopsis
  • The growth of farmers' markets in the U.S. to over 8,400 in 2015 has raised concerns about food safety, with several outbreaks and recalls linked to food sold at these venues since 2008.
  • A study in Pennsylvania found E. coli and Listeria spp. in various samples of leafy greens and meats from farmers' markets, indicating a notable risk of contamination among these products.
  • The presence of harmful bacteria suggests that vendors could significantly improve food safety practices through training and awareness, benefiting both their businesses and public health.
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Thirty Escherichia coli isolates from captive and free-living pigeons in Brazil were characterised. Virulence-associated genes identified in pigeons included those which occur relatively frequently in avian pathogenic E. coli (APEC) from commercial poultry worldwide.

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Wild birds are carriers of Escherichia coli. However, little is known about their role as reservoirs for extra-intestinal pathogenic E. coli (ExPEC).

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 Within-household sharing of strains from the resistance-associated 30R1 and 30Rx subclones of sequence type 131 (ST131) has been inferred based on conventional typing data, but it has been assessed minimally using whole genome sequence (WGS) analysis.  Thirty-three clinical and fecal isolates of ST131-30R1 and ST131-30Rx, from 20 humans and pets in 6 households, underwent WGS analysis for comparison with 52 published ST131 genomes. Phylogenetic relationships were inferred using a bootstrapped maximum likelihood tree based on core genome sequence polymorphisms.

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Antibiotics are widely used in chicken production for therapeutic purposes, disease prevention and growth promotion, and this may select for drug resistant microorganisms known to spread to humans through consumption of contaminated food. Raising chickens on an organic feed regimen, without the use of antibiotics, is increasingly popular with the consumers. In order to determine the effects of diet regimen on antibiotic resistant genes in the gut microbiome, we analyzed the phylotypes and identified the antimicrobial resistant genes in chicken, grown under conventional and organic dietary regimens.

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Escherichia coli plays an important role as a member of the gut microbiota; however, pathogenic strains also exist, including various diarrheagenic E. coli pathotypes and extraintestinal pathogenic E. coli that cause illness outside of the GI-tract.

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The sip gene encoding for a conserved highly immunogenic surface protein of Streptococcus agalactiae was amplified using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and subcloned into prokaryotic expression vector pET32a (+) and expressed as a recombinant protein in E. coli BL21 (DE3). An indirect enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was developed using the purified Sip protein as a coating antigen, which could identify S.

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Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli O157:H7 (STEC) cause food-borne illness that may be fatal. STEC strains enumerate two types of potent Shiga toxins (Stx1 and Stx2) that are responsible for causing diseases. It is important to detect the E.

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Escherichia coli populations originating from swine houses through constructed wetlands were analyzed for potential pathogens, antimicrobial susceptibility patterns, and genotypic diversity. Escherichia coli isolates (n = 493) were screened for the presence of the following virulence genes: stx1, stx2 and eae (Shiga toxin-producing E. coli [STEC]), heat-labile enterotoxin (LT) genes and heat stable toxin STa and STb (enterotoxigenic E.

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Escherichia coli strains are classified based on O-antigens that are components of the lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in the cell envelope. O-antigens are important virulence factors, targets of both the innate and adaptive immune system, and play a role in host-pathogen interactions. Because they are highly immunogenic and display antigenic specificity unique for each strain, O-antigens are the biomarkers for designating O-types.

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Article Synopsis
  • Researchers sequenced genomes of various Escherichia coli strains, including types that produce Shiga toxin, and found 39 plasmids containing virulence genes.
  • Some plasmids were linked to antibiotic resistance against multiple drug classes and heavy metals, with two plasmids showing resistance to six different types of antibiotics.
  • The study suggests that plasmids carrying these resistance and virulence traits can circulate widely among different E. coli serotypes, regardless of their origins.
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Background: Neonatal meningitis-causing Escherichia coli (NMEC) is the predominant Gram-negative bacterial pathogen associated with meningitis in newborn infants. High levels of heterogeneity and diversity have been observed in the repertoire of virulence traits and other characteristics among strains of NMEC making it difficult to define the NMEC pathotype. The objective of the present study was to identify genotypic and phenotypic characteristics of NMEC that can be used to distinguish them from commensal E.

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Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli O157:H7 causes foodborne infections, and cattle are the primary reservoir. Some animals, known as supershedders, excrete orders of magnitude more E. coli O157:H7 in the feces than normal.

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