Genetic characteristics of tccP2 gene of clinical isolates of enteropathogenic Escherichia coli

Objective To study the carriage and genetic characteristic of tccP2 gene of 268 strains of Escherichia.coli isolated in a children's hospital in china during 2001 to 2003. Methods All the strains were subjects to test for virulence genes by PCR, then tccP2 gene detection was conducted. The tccP2 gene in positive strainwas cloned, sequenced and compared with the nucleotide acid sequences of str.11128(O111 ∶ H-) downloaded from Genbank. Results Among 7 EPEC strains identified from clinical strains during 2001 to 2003, two were tccP2 gene positive. The length of tccP2 gene were both 1458 bp. The tccP2 genes of the two strains showed 100% identity at the nucleic acid level. Compared with the tccP2 gene of str.11128(O111 ∶ H-), the sequence identity was 61.3%. Amino acid sequence alignment indicted that the first 87 amino acids identified as 100% as the str.11128(O111:H-) at N terminal, proline-rich repeats and the last truncated showed high level of identity other than 4 more repeats of the 2 strains. Conclusion It is necessary to strengthen the monitoring and isolation of EPEC strains with tccP2 gene in clinical isolates due to the fact of the detection of such strains in hospitals.