Thomas S. Whittam

Genomic diversity of pathogenic Escherichia coliof the EHEC 2 clonal complex (2009)

Abu-Ali, Galeb S, Lacher, David W, Wick, Lukas M, Qi, Weihong, Whittam, Thomas S

Abstract Background Evolutionary analyses of enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) have identified two distantly related clonal groups: EHEC 1, including serotype O157:H7 and its inferred...

Characterisation of atypical enteropathogenic E. colistrains of clinical origin (2009)

Tennant, Sharon M, Tauschek, Marija, Azzopardi, Kristy, Bigham, Andrea, Bennett-Wood, Vicki, Hartland, Elizabeth L, ...

Abstract Background Enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC) is a prominent cause of diarrhoea, and is characterised in part by its carriage of a pathogenicity island: the locus for enterocyte effacement...

Multiple factors interact to produce responses resembling spectrum of human disease in Campylobacter jejuniinfected C57BL/6 IL-10-/-mice (2009)

Bell, Julia A, St Charles, Jessica L, Murphy, Alice J, Rathinam, Vijay AK, Plovanich-Jones, Anne E, Stanley, Erin L, ...

Abstract Background Campylobacter jejuni infection produces a spectrum of clinical presentations in humans – including asymptomatic carriage, watery diarrhea, and bloody diarrhea – and has been...

Shiga Toxin-producing Escherichia coli Strains Negative for Locus of Enterocyte Effacement (2009)

Newton, Hayley J., Sloan, Joan, Bulach, Dieter M., Seemann, Torsten, Allison, Cody C., Tauschek, Marija, ...

Most Shiga toxin–producing Escherichia coli (STEC) infections that are associated with severe sequelae such as hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) are caused by attaching and effacing pathogens that...

Shiga Toxin-producing Escherichia coli Strains Negative for Locus of Enterocyte Effacement (2009)

Newton, Hayley J., Sloan, Joan, Bulach, Dieter M., Seemann, Torsten, Allison, Cody C., Tauschek, Marija, ...

Most Shiga toxin–producing Escherichia coli (STEC) infections that are associated with severe sequelae such as hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) are caused by attaching and effacing pathogens that...

Allele distribution and genetic diversity of VNTR loci in Salmonella entericaserotype Enteritidis isolates from different sources (2008)

Cho, Seongbeom, Whittam, Thomas S, Boxrud, David J, Bartkus, Joanne M, Saeed, A Mahdi

Abstract Background Salmonella enterica serotype Enteritidis ( S . Enteritidis) is a zoonotic pathogen, which can be found in many sources including animals and the environment. However, little is...

Dispatches Mutators and Long-Term Molecular Evolution of Pathogenic Escherichia coli O157:H7 (2008)

Thomas S. Whittam, Sean D. Reid, Robert K. Sel

It has been proposed that an increased mutation rate (indicated by the frequency of hypermutable isolates) has facilitated the emergence of Escherichia coli O157:H7. Analysis of the divergence of 12...

Global transcriptional response of Escherichia coliO157:H7 to growth transitions in glucose minimal medium (2007)

Bergholz, Teresa M, Wick, Lukas M, Qi, Weihong, Riordan, James T, Ouellette, Lindsey M, Whittam, Thomas S

Abstract Background: Global patterns of gene expression of Escherichia coli K-12 during growth transitions have been deeply investigated, however, comparable studies of E. coli O157:H7 have not been...

Greater Diversity of Shiga Toxin-Encoding Bacteriophage Insertion Sites among Escherichia coli O157:H7 Isolates from Cattle than in Those from Humans (2007)

Besser, Thomas E., Shaikh, Nurmohammad, Holt, Nicholas J., Tarr, Phillip I., Konkel, Michael E., Malik-Kale, Preeti, ...

E. coli O157:H7, a zoonotic human pathogen for which domestic cattle are a reservoir host, produces a Shiga toxin(s) (Stx) encoded by bacteriophages. Chromosomal insertion sites of these...

Evolutionary and Functional Relationships of Colonization Factor Antigen I and Other Class 5 Adhesive Fimbriae of Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (2006)

Anantha, Ravi P., McVeigh, Annette L., Lee, Lanfong H., Agnew, Mary K., Cassels, Frederick J., Scott, Daniel A., ...

Colonization factor antigen I (CFA/I) is the archetype of eight genetically related fimbriae of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) designated class 5 fimbriae. Assembled by the alternate...

Role of Large Sequence Polymorphisms (LSPs) in Generating Genomic Diversity among Clinical Isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and the Utility of LSPs in Phylogenetic Analysis � † (2006)

David All, David W. Lacher, Manzour Hern, O Hazbón, Alifiya S. Motiwala, Weihong Qi, ...

Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains contain different genomic insertions or deletions called large sequence polymorphisms (LSPs). Distinguishing between LSPs that occur one time versus ones that occur...

On-chip non-equilibrium dissociation curves and dissociation rate constants as methods to assess specificity of oligonucleotide probes (2006)

Wick, Lukas M., Rouillard, Jean Marie, Whittam, Thomas S., Gulari, Erdogan, Tiedje, James M., Hashsham, Syed A.

Nucleic acid hybridization serves as backbone for many high-throughput systems for detection, expression analysis, comparative genomics and re-sequencing. Specificity of hybridization between probes...

Probing genomic diversity and evolution of Escherichia coli O157 by single nucleotide polymorphisms (2006)

Zhang, Wei, Qi, Weihong, Albert, Thomas J., Motiwala, Alifiya S., Alland, David, Hyytia-Trees, Eija K., ...

Infections by Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli O157:H7 (STEC O157) are the predominant cause of bloody diarrhea and hemolytic uremic syndrome in the United States. In silico comparison of the...

Probing genomic diversity and evolution of Escherichia coli O157 by single-nucleotide polymorphisms (2006)

Zhang, Wei, Qi, Weihong, Albert, Thomas J., Motiwala, Alifiya S., Alland, David, Hyytia-Trees, Eija K., ...

Infections by Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli O157:H7 (STEC O157) are the predominant cause of bloody diarrhea and hemolytic uremic syndrome in the United States. In silico comparison of the...

Genomic divergence of Escherichia coli strains: evidence for horizontal transfer and variation in mutation rates (2005)

Elena, Santiago F., Whittam, Thomas S., Winkworth, Cynthia L., Riley, Margaret A., Lenski, Richard E.

This report describes the sequencing in the Escherichia coli B genome of 36 randomly chosen regions that are present in most or all of the fully sequenced E. coli genomes. The phylogenetic...

Evolutionary and Functional Relationships of Colonization Factor Antigen I and Other Class 5 Adhesive Fimbriae of Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (2004)

Ravi P. Anantha, Annette L. Mcveigh, Lanfong H. Lee, Mary K. Agnew, Frederick J. Cassels, Daniel A. Scott, ...

Colonization factor antigen I (CFA/I) is the archetype of eight genetically related fimbriae of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) designated class 5 fimbriae. Assembled by the alternate...

RAPD (arbitrary primer) PCR is more sensitive than multilocus enzyme electrophoresis for distinguishing related bacterial strains (1993)

Wang, Gan, Whittam, Thomas S., Berg, Claire M., Berg, Douglas E.

The RAPD (random amplified polymorphic DNA) fingerprinting method, which utilizes low stringency PCR amplification with single primers of arbitrary sequence to generate strain-specific arrays of...

Restricted structural gene polymorphism in the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex indicates evolutionarily recent global dissemination

Sreevatsan, Srinand, Pan, Xi, Stockbauer, Kathryn E., Connell, Nancy D., Kreiswirth, Barry N., Whittam, Thomas S., ...

One-third of humans are infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of tuberculosis. Sequence analysis of two megabases in 26 structural genes or loci in strains recovered globally...

Carbonic anhydrase is an ancient enzyme widespread in prokaryotes

Smith, Kerry S., Jakubzick, Claudia, Whittam, Thomas S., Ferry, James G.

Carbonic anhydrases catalyze the reversible hydration of CO2 and are ubiquitous in highly evolved eukaryotes. The recent identification of a third class of carbonic anhydrase (γ class) in a...

Complete genomic sequence of Pasteurella multocida,Pm70

May, Barbara J., Zhang, Qing, Li, Ling Ling, Paustian, Michael L., Whittam, Thomas S., Kapur, Vivek

We present here the complete genome sequence of a common avian clone of Pasteurella multocida, Pm70. The genome of Pm70 is a single circular chromosome 2,257,487 base pairs in length and contains...

Genetic Diversity among Escherichia coli Isolates Carrying f18 Genes from Pigs with Porcine Postweaning Diarrhea and Edema Disease

Nagy, Béla, Wilson, Richard A., Whittam, Thomas S.

Multilocus enzyme electrophoresis was applied to detect allelic variation and multilocus genotypes (electrophoretic types [ETs]) among 43 Escherichia coli isolates from weaned pigs suffering from...

Molecular Detection and Identification of Intimin Alleles in Pathogenic Escherichia coli by Multiplex PCR

Reid, Sean D., Betting, David J., Whittam, Thomas S.

A multiplex PCR was designed to detect the eae gene and simultaneously identify specific alleles in pathogenic Escherichia coli. The method was tested on 87 strains representing the diarrheagenic E....

Acquisition of the rfb-gnd Cluster in Evolution of Escherichia coli O55 and O157

Tarr, Phillip I., Schoening, Laura M., Yea, Yoo-Lee, Ward, Teresa R., Jelacic, Srdjan, Whittam, Thomas S.

The rfb region specifies the structure of lipopolysaccharide side chains that comprise the diverse gram-negative bacterial somatic (O) antigens. The rfb locus is adjacent to gnd, which is a...

Sequence Diversity and Molecular Evolution of the Leukotoxin (lktA) Gene in Bovine and Ovine Strains of Mannheimia (Pasteurella) haemolytica

Davies, Robert L., Whittam, Thomas S., Selander, Robert K.

The molecular evolution of the leukotoxin structural gene (lktA) of Mannheimia (Pasteurella) haemolytica was investigated by nucleotide sequence comparison of lktA in 31 bovine and ovine strains...

Phylogenetic Analysis of Enteroaggregative and Diffusely Adherent Escherichia coli

Czeczulin, John R., Whittam, Thomas S., Henderson, Ian R., Navarro-Garcia, Fernando, Nataro, James P.

The phylogenetics of the various pathotypes of diarrheagenic Escherichia coli are not completely understood. In this study, we identified several plasmid and chromosomal genes in the pathogenic...

Molecular Variation among Type IV Pilin (bfpA) Genes from Diverse Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli Strains

Blank, T. Eric, Zhong, Hailang, Bell, Alison L., Whittam, Thomas S., Donnenberg, Michael S.

Typical enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) strains produce bundle-forming pili (BFP), type IVB fimbriae that have been implicated in EPEC virulence, antigenicity, autoaggregation, and localized...

Sequence Diversity of Flagellin (fliC) Alleles in Pathogenic Escherichia coli

Reid, Sean D., Selander, Robert K., Whittam, Thomas S.

To study the molecular evolution of flagellin, the protein subunit specifying flagellar (H) antigens, the fliC genes from 15 pathogenic strains of Escherichia coli were amplified by PCR and...

Gene Conservation and Loss in the mutS-rpoS Genomic Region of Pathogenic Escherichia coli

Herbelin, Corinne J., Chirillo, Samantha C., Melnick, Kristen A., Whittam, Thomas S.

The extent and nature of DNA polymorphism in the mutS-rpoS region of the Escherichia coli genome were assessed in 21 strains of enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC) and enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC)...

Clonal Diversity of Escherichia coli Colonizing Stools and Urinary Tracts of Young Girls

Schlager, Theresa A., Hendley, J. Owen, Bell, Alison L., Whittam, Thomas S.

Intestinal carriage of Escherichia coli in prepubertal girls without a history of urinary tract infection was examined by collecting weekly stools and periurethral and urine samples over 3 to 4 weeks...

Molecular Characterization of a Serotype O121:H19 Clone, a Distinct Shiga Toxin-Producing Clone of Pathogenic Escherichia coli

Tarr, Cheryl L., Large, Teresa M., Moeller, Chris L., Lacher, David W., Tarr, Phillip I., Acheson, David W., ...

Most illnesses caused by Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) have been attributed to E. coli serotype O157:H7, but non-O157 STEC infections are now increasingly recognized as public health...

A Multiresistant Clone of Shiga Toxin-Producing Escherichia coli O118:[H16] Is Spread in Cattle and Humans over Different European Countries

Maidhof, Heinrich, Guerra, Beatriz, Abbas, Sascha, Elsheikha, Hany M., Whittam, Thomas S., Beutin, Lothar

Multiresistant Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) O118:H16 and O118 nonmotile strains (designated O118:[H16]) were detected by examination of 171 STEC isolates for their antimicrobial...

Mosaic Structure and Molecular Evolution of the Leukotoxin Operon (lktCABD) in Mannheimia (Pasteurella) haemolytica, Mannheimia glucosida, and Pasteurella trehalosi

Davies, Robert L., Campbell, Susan, Whittam, Thomas S.

The mosaic structure and molecular evolution of the leukotoxin operon (lktCABD) was investigated by nucleotide sequence comparison of the lktC, lktB, and lktD genes in 23 Mannheimia (Pasteurella)...

Molecular Evolution of the Intimin Gene in O111 Clones of Pathogenic Escherichia coli

Tarr, Cheryl L., Whittam, Thomas S.

Intimin is an important virulence factor in two groups of enteric pathogens: enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC), which is a major cause of infant diarrhea in the developing world, and...

Genetic Structure of Rhizobium leguminosarum biovar trifolii and viciae Populations Found in Two Oregon Soils under Different Plant Communities †

Strain, Steven R., Leung, Kamtin, Whittam, Thomas S., De Bruijn, Frans J., Bottomley, Peter J.

An investigation was carried out to determine the genetic structure in soil populations of Rhizobium leguminosarum bv. trifolii and viciae at each of two Oregon sites (A and C) that were 1 km apart....

Evolutionary and Functional Relationships of Colonization Factor Antigen I and Other Class 5 Adhesive Fimbriae of Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli

Anantha, Ravi P., McVeigh, Annette L., Lee, Lanfong H., Agnew, Mary K., Cassels, Frederick J., Scott, Daniel A., ...

Colonization factor antigen I (CFA/I) is the archetype of eight genetically related fimbriae of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) designated class 5 fimbriae. Assembled by the alternate...

Evolutionary Genetics of a New Pathogenic Escherichia Species: Escherichia albertii and Related Shigella boydii Strains

Hyma, Katie E., Lacher, David W., Nelson, Adam M., Bumbaugh, Alyssa C., Janda, J. Michael, Strockbine, Nancy A., ...

A bacterium originally described as Hafnia alvei induces diarrhea in rabbits and causes epithelial damage similar to the attachment and effacement associated with enteropathogenic Escherichia coli....

Evolution of Genomic Content in the Stepwise Emergence of Escherichia coli O157:H7†

Wick, Lukas M., Qi, Weihong, Lacher, David W., Whittam, Thomas S.

Genome comparisons have demonstrated that dramatic genetic change often underlies the emergence of new bacterial pathogens. Evolutionary analysis of Escherichia coli O157:H7, a pathogen that has...

Variation in Acid Resistance among Shiga Toxin-Producing Clones of Pathogenic Escherichia coli†

Large, Teresa M., Walk, Seth T., Whittam, Thomas S.

Pathogenic strains of Escherichia coli, such as E. coli O157:H7, have a low infectious dose and an ability to survive in acidic foods. These bacteria have evolved at least three distinct mechanisms...

Genetic Diversity of Campylobacter sp. Isolates from Retail Chicken Products and Humans with Gastroenteritis in Central Michigan

Fitch, Brooke R., Sachen, Kacey L., Wilder, Stacey R., Burg, Matthew A., Lacher, David W., Khalife, Walid T., ...

Multilocus sequencing was used to compare Campylobacter sp. strains isolated from retail chicken products and humans with gastroenteritis in central Michigan. Sequence comparisons demonstrated...

DNA Polymorphism and Molecular Subtyping of the Capsular Gene Cluster of Group B Streptococcus†

Manning, Shannon D., Lacher, David W., Davies, H. Dele, Foxman, Betsy, Whittam, Thomas S.

Serotyping and other phenotypic methods are often used to characterize the capsular polysaccharide of group B streptococci (GBS). We describe a capsular genotyping method that utilizes PCR of...

On-chip non-equilibrium dissociation curves and dissociation rate constants as methods to assess specificity of oligonucleotide probes

Wick, Lukas M., Rouillard, Jean Marie, Whittam, Thomas S., Gulari, Erdogan, Tiedje, James M., Hashsham, Syed A.

Nucleic acid hybridization serves as backbone for many high-throughput systems for detection, expression analysis, comparative genomics and re-sequencing. Specificity of hybridization between probes...

Modeling Bacterial Evolution with Comparative-Genome-Based Marker Systems: Application to Mycobacterium tuberculosis Evolution and Pathogenesis

Alland, David, Whittam, Thomas S., Murray, Megan B., Cave, M. Donald, Hazbon, Manzour H., Dix, Kim, ...

The comparative-genomic sequencing of two Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains enabled us to identify single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers for studies of evolution, pathogenesis, and...

Differentiation of Escherichia coli Pathotypes by Oligonucleotide Spotted Array†

Palaniappan, Raghavan U. M., Zhang, Yu, Chiu, David, Torres, Alfonso, DebRoy, Chobi, Whittam, Thomas S., ...

To accurately determine the pathotypes of Escherichia coli strains, a comprehensive assessment of each strain that targets multiple genes is required. A new approach to the identification and...

Produce Isolates of the Escherichia coli Ont:H52 Serotype That Carry both Shiga Toxin 1 and Stable Toxin Genes

Monday, Steven R., Keys, Christina, Hanson, Patricia, Shen, Yuelian, Whittam, Thomas S., Feng, Peter

Produce isolates of the Escherichia coli Ont:H52 serotype carried Shiga toxin 1 and stable toxin genes but only expressed Stx1. These strains had pulsed-field gel electrophoresis profiles that were...

Genetic Changes in Fluctuating Vole Populations: Selective VS. Nonselective Forces

Gaines, Michael S., Whittam, Thomas S.

The Lewontin-Krakauer test for selective neutrality of polymorphisms was applied to temporal variation in gene frequency at five electrophoretic loci in each of four fluctuating vole populations over...

Probing genomic diversity and evolution of Escherichia coli O157 by single nucleotide polymorphisms

Zhang, Wei, Qi, Weihong, Albert, Thomas J., Motiwala, Alifiya S., Alland, David, Hyytia-Trees, Eija K., ...

Infections by Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli O157:H7 (STEC O157) are the predominant cause of bloody diarrhea and hemolytic uremic syndrome in the United States. In silico comparison of the...

Restricted structural gene polymorphism in the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex indicates evolutionarily recent global dissemination

Sreevatsan, Srinand, Pan, Xi, Stockbauer, Kathryn E., Connell, Nancy D., Kreiswirth, Barry N., Whittam, Thomas S., ...

One-third of humans are infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of tuberculosis. Sequence analysis of two megabases in 26 structural genes or loci in strains recovered globally...

Carbonic anhydrase is an ancient enzyme widespread in prokaryotes

Smith, Kerry S., Jakubzick, Claudia, Whittam, Thomas S., Ferry, James G.

Carbonic anhydrases catalyze the reversible hydration of CO2 and are ubiquitous in highly evolved eukaryotes. The recent identification of a third class of carbonic anhydrase (γ class) in a...

Complete genomic sequence of Pasteurella multocida,Pm70

May, Barbara J., Zhang, Qing, Li, Ling Ling, Paustian, Michael L., Whittam, Thomas S., Kapur, Vivek

We present here the complete genome sequence of a common avian clone of Pasteurella multocida, Pm70. The genome of Pm70 is a single circular chromosome 2,257,487 base pairs in length and contains...

Genetic Diversity among Escherichia coli Isolates Carrying f18 Genes from Pigs with Porcine Postweaning Diarrhea and Edema Disease

Nagy, Béla, Wilson, Richard A., Whittam, Thomas S.

Multilocus enzyme electrophoresis was applied to detect allelic variation and multilocus genotypes (electrophoretic types [ETs]) among 43 Escherichia coli isolates from weaned pigs suffering from...

Molecular Detection and Identification of Intimin Alleles in Pathogenic Escherichia coli by Multiplex PCR

Reid, Sean D., Betting, David J., Whittam, Thomas S.

A multiplex PCR was designed to detect the eae gene and simultaneously identify specific alleles in pathogenic Escherichia coli. The method was tested on 87 strains representing the diarrheagenic E....

Acquisition of the rfb-gnd Cluster in Evolution of Escherichia coli O55 and O157

Tarr, Phillip I., Schoening, Laura M., Yea, Yoo-Lee, Ward, Teresa R., Jelacic, Srdjan, Whittam, Thomas S.

The rfb region specifies the structure of lipopolysaccharide side chains that comprise the diverse gram-negative bacterial somatic (O) antigens. The rfb locus is adjacent to gnd, which is a...

Sequence Diversity and Molecular Evolution of the Leukotoxin (lktA) Gene in Bovine and Ovine Strains of Mannheimia (Pasteurella) haemolytica

Davies, Robert L., Whittam, Thomas S., Selander, Robert K.

The molecular evolution of the leukotoxin structural gene (lktA) of Mannheimia (Pasteurella) haemolytica was investigated by nucleotide sequence comparison of lktA in 31 bovine and ovine strains...

Phylogenetic Analysis of Enteroaggregative and Diffusely Adherent Escherichia coli

Czeczulin, John R., Whittam, Thomas S., Henderson, Ian R., Navarro-Garcia, Fernando, Nataro, James P.

The phylogenetics of the various pathotypes of diarrheagenic Escherichia coli are not completely understood. In this study, we identified several plasmid and chromosomal genes in the pathogenic...

Molecular Variation among Type IV Pilin (bfpA) Genes from Diverse Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli Strains

Blank, T. Eric, Zhong, Hailang, Bell, Alison L., Whittam, Thomas S., Donnenberg, Michael S.

Typical enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) strains produce bundle-forming pili (BFP), type IVB fimbriae that have been implicated in EPEC virulence, antigenicity, autoaggregation, and localized...

Sequence Diversity of Flagellin (fliC) Alleles in Pathogenic Escherichia coli

Reid, Sean D., Selander, Robert K., Whittam, Thomas S.

To study the molecular evolution of flagellin, the protein subunit specifying flagellar (H) antigens, the fliC genes from 15 pathogenic strains of Escherichia coli were amplified by PCR and...

Gene Conservation and Loss in the mutS-rpoS Genomic Region of Pathogenic Escherichia coli

Herbelin, Corinne J., Chirillo, Samantha C., Melnick, Kristen A., Whittam, Thomas S.

The extent and nature of DNA polymorphism in the mutS-rpoS region of the Escherichia coli genome were assessed in 21 strains of enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC) and enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC)...

Clonal Diversity of Escherichia coli Colonizing Stools and Urinary Tracts of Young Girls

Schlager, Theresa A., Hendley, J. Owen, Bell, Alison L., Whittam, Thomas S.

Intestinal carriage of Escherichia coli in prepubertal girls without a history of urinary tract infection was examined by collecting weekly stools and periurethral and urine samples over 3 to 4 weeks...

Molecular Characterization of a Serotype O121:H19 Clone, a Distinct Shiga Toxin-Producing Clone of Pathogenic Escherichia coli

Tarr, Cheryl L., Large, Teresa M., Moeller, Chris L., Lacher, David W., Tarr, Phillip I., Acheson, David W., ...

Most illnesses caused by Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) have been attributed to E. coli serotype O157:H7, but non-O157 STEC infections are now increasingly recognized as public health...

A Multiresistant Clone of Shiga Toxin-Producing Escherichia coli O118:[H16] Is Spread in Cattle and Humans over Different European Countries

Maidhof, Heinrich, Guerra, Beatriz, Abbas, Sascha, Elsheikha, Hany M., Whittam, Thomas S., Beutin, Lothar

Multiresistant Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) O118:H16 and O118 nonmotile strains (designated O118:[H16]) were detected by examination of 171 STEC isolates for their antimicrobial...

Mosaic Structure and Molecular Evolution of the Leukotoxin Operon (lktCABD) in Mannheimia (Pasteurella) haemolytica, Mannheimia glucosida, and Pasteurella trehalosi

Davies, Robert L., Campbell, Susan, Whittam, Thomas S.

The mosaic structure and molecular evolution of the leukotoxin operon (lktCABD) was investigated by nucleotide sequence comparison of the lktC, lktB, and lktD genes in 23 Mannheimia (Pasteurella)...

Molecular Evolution of the Intimin Gene in O111 Clones of Pathogenic Escherichia coli

Tarr, Cheryl L., Whittam, Thomas S.

Intimin is an important virulence factor in two groups of enteric pathogens: enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC), which is a major cause of infant diarrhea in the developing world, and...

Modeling Bacterial Evolution with Comparative-Genome-Based Marker Systems: Application to Mycobacterium tuberculosis Evolution and Pathogenesis

Alland, David, Whittam, Thomas S., Murray, Megan B., Cave, M. Donald, Hazbon, Manzour H., Dix, Kim, ...

The comparative-genomic sequencing of two Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains enabled us to identify single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers for studies of evolution, pathogenesis, and...

Genetic Structure of Rhizobium leguminosarum biovar trifolii and viciae Populations Found in Two Oregon Soils under Different Plant Communities †

Strain, Steven R., Leung, Kamtin, Whittam, Thomas S., De Bruijn, Frans J., Bottomley, Peter J.

An investigation was carried out to determine the genetic structure in soil populations of Rhizobium leguminosarum bv. trifolii and viciae at each of two Oregon sites (A and C) that were 1 km apart....

Evolutionary and Functional Relationships of Colonization Factor Antigen I and Other Class 5 Adhesive Fimbriae of Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli

Anantha, Ravi P., McVeigh, Annette L., Lee, Lanfong H., Agnew, Mary K., Cassels, Frederick J., Scott, Daniel A., ...

Colonization factor antigen I (CFA/I) is the archetype of eight genetically related fimbriae of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) designated class 5 fimbriae. Assembled by the alternate...

Evolutionary Genetics of a New Pathogenic Escherichia Species: Escherichia albertii and Related Shigella boydii Strains

Hyma, Katie E., Lacher, David W., Nelson, Adam M., Bumbaugh, Alyssa C., Janda, J. Michael, Strockbine, Nancy A., ...

A bacterium originally described as Hafnia alvei induces diarrhea in rabbits and causes epithelial damage similar to the attachment and effacement associated with enteropathogenic Escherichia coli....

Evolution of Genomic Content in the Stepwise Emergence of Escherichia coli O157:H7†

Wick, Lukas M., Qi, Weihong, Lacher, David W., Whittam, Thomas S.

Genome comparisons have demonstrated that dramatic genetic change often underlies the emergence of new bacterial pathogens. Evolutionary analysis of Escherichia coli O157:H7, a pathogen that has...

Variation in Acid Resistance among Shiga Toxin-Producing Clones of Pathogenic Escherichia coli†

Large, Teresa M., Walk, Seth T., Whittam, Thomas S.

Pathogenic strains of Escherichia coli, such as E. coli O157:H7, have a low infectious dose and an ability to survive in acidic foods. These bacteria have evolved at least three distinct mechanisms...

Genetic Changes in Fluctuating Vole Populations: Selective VS. Nonselective Forces

Gaines, Michael S., Whittam, Thomas S.

The Lewontin-Krakauer test for selective neutrality of polymorphisms was applied to temporal variation in gene frequency at five electrophoretic loci in each of four fluctuating vole populations over...

Genetic Diversity of Campylobacter sp. Isolates from Retail Chicken Products and Humans with Gastroenteritis in Central Michigan

Fitch, Brooke R., Sachen, Kacey L., Wilder, Stacey R., Burg, Matthew A., Lacher, David W., Khalife, Walid T., ...

Multilocus sequencing was used to compare Campylobacter sp. strains isolated from retail chicken products and humans with gastroenteritis in central Michigan. Sequence comparisons demonstrated...

DNA Polymorphism and Molecular Subtyping of the Capsular Gene Cluster of Group B Streptococcus†

Manning, Shannon D., Lacher, David W., Davies, H. Dele, Foxman, Betsy, Whittam, Thomas S.

Serotyping and other phenotypic methods are often used to characterize the capsular polysaccharide of group B streptococci (GBS). We describe a capsular genotyping method that utilizes PCR of...

On-chip non-equilibrium dissociation curves and dissociation rate constants as methods to assess specificity of oligonucleotide probes

Wick, Lukas M., Rouillard, Jean Marie, Whittam, Thomas S., Gulari, Erdogan, Tiedje, James M., Hashsham, Syed A.

Nucleic acid hybridization serves as backbone for many high-throughput systems for detection, expression analysis, comparative genomics and re-sequencing. Specificity of hybridization between probes...

Differentiation of Escherichia coli Pathotypes by Oligonucleotide Spotted Array†

Palaniappan, Raghavan U. M., Zhang, Yu, Chiu, David, Torres, Alfonso, DebRoy, Chobi, Whittam, Thomas S., ...

To accurately determine the pathotypes of Escherichia coli strains, a comprehensive assessment of each strain that targets multiple genes is required. A new approach to the identification and...

Produce Isolates of the Escherichia coli Ont:H52 Serotype That Carry both Shiga Toxin 1 and Stable Toxin Genes

Monday, Steven R., Keys, Christina, Hanson, Patricia, Shen, Yuelian, Whittam, Thomas S., Feng, Peter

Produce isolates of the Escherichia coli Ont:H52 serotype carried Shiga toxin 1 and stable toxin genes but only expressed Stx1. These strains had pulsed-field gel electrophoresis profiles that were...

Probing genomic diversity and evolution of Escherichia coli O157 by single nucleotide polymorphisms

Zhang, Wei, Qi, Weihong, Albert, Thomas J., Motiwala, Alifiya S., Alland, David, Hyytia-Trees, Eija K., ...

Infections by Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli O157:H7 (STEC O157) are the predominant cause of bloody diarrhea and hemolytic uremic syndrome in the United States. In silico comparison of the...

Molecular Evolution of Typical Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli: Clonal Analysis by Multilocus Sequence Typing and Virulence Gene Allelic Profiling▿ †

Lacher, David W., Steinsland, Hans, Blank, T. Eric, Donnenberg, Michael S., Whittam, Thomas S.

Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) infections are a leading cause of infantile diarrhea in developing nations. Typical EPEC isolates are differentiated from other types of pathogenic E. coli by...

Role of Large Sequence Polymorphisms (LSPs) in Generating Genomic Diversity among Clinical Isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and the Utility of LSPs in Phylogenetic Analysis▿ †

Alland, David, Lacher, David W., Hazbón, Manzour Hernando, Motiwala, Alifiya S., Qi, Weihong, Fleischmann, Robert D., ...

Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains contain different genomic insertions or deletions called large sequence polymorphisms (LSPs). Distinguishing between LSPs that occur one time versus ones that occur...

Greater Diversity of Shiga Toxin-Encoding Bacteriophage Insertion Sites among Escherichia coli O157:H7 Isolates from Cattle than in Those from Humans▿

Besser, Thomas E., Shaikh, Nurmohammad, Holt, Nicholas J., Tarr, Phillip I., Konkel, Michael E., Malik-Kale, Preeti, ...

Escherichia coli O157:H7, a zoonotic human pathogen for which domestic cattle are a reservoir host, produces a Shiga toxin(s) (Stx) encoded by bacteriophages. Chromosomal insertion sites of these...

Multiple-locus variable-number tandem repeat analysis of Salmonella Enteritidis isolates from human and non-human sources using a single multiplex PCR

Cho, Seongbeom, Boxrud, David J, Bartkus, Joanne M, Whittam, Thomas S, Saeed, Mahdi

Simplified multiple-locus variable-number tandem repeat analysis (MLVA) was developed using one-shot multiplex PCR for seven variable-number tandem repeats (VNTR) markers with high diversity...

Influence of Antibiotic Selection on Genetic Composition of Escherichia coli Populations from Conventional and Organic Dairy Farms▿ †

Walk, Seth T., Mladonicky, Janice M., Middleton, Jaclyn A., Heidt, Anthony J., Cunningham, Julie R., Bartlett, Paul, ...

The widespread agricultural use of antimicrobials has long been considered a crucial influence on the prevalence of resistant genes and bacterial strains. It has been suggested that antibiotic...

Molecular Characterization Reveals Similar Virulence Gene Content in Unrelated Clonal Groups of Escherichia coli of Serogroup O174 (OX3)▿

Tarr, Cheryl L., Nelson, Adam M., Beutin, Lothar, Olsen, Katharina E. P., Whittam, Thomas S.

Most severe illnesses that are attributed to Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli are caused by isolates that also carry a pathogenicity island called the locus of enterocyte effacement (LEE)....

Applicability of Phylogenetic Methods for Characterizing the Public Health Significance of Verocytotoxin-Producing Escherichia coli Strains▿

Ziebell, Kim, Konczy, Paulina, Yong, Irene, Frost, Shelley, Mascarenhas, Mariola, Kropinski, Andrew M., ...

Two phylogenetic methods (multilocus sequence typing [MLST] and a multiplex PCR) were investigated to determine whether phylogenetic classification of verocytotoxin-producing Escherichia coli...

Variation in virulence among clades of Escherichia coli O157:H7 associated with disease outbreaks

Manning, Shannon D., Motiwala, Alifiya S., Springman, A. Cody, Qi, Weihong, Lacher, David W., Ouellette, Lindsey M., ...

Escherichia coli O157:H7, a toxin-producing food and waterborne bacterial pathogen, has been linked to large outbreaks of gastrointestinal illness for more than two decades. E. coli O157 causes a...

Genetic Differentiation of Escherichia coli O157:H7 Clades Associated with Human Disease by Real-Time PCR▿

Riordan, James T., Viswanath, Sandeep B., Manning, Shannon D., Whittam, Thomas S.

The rapid and accurate identification of Escherichia coli O157:H7 strains is central to reducing the impact of outbreaks. A real-time PCR-based approach to differentiating major outbreak lineages of...

Pathogenesis of Renal Disease Due to Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli in Germ-Free Mice▿

Eaton, Kathryn A., Friedman, David I., Francis, Gayle J., Tyler, Jessica S., Young, Vincent B., Haeger, Jennifer, ...

Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) is a food-borne pathogen that causes hemorrhagic colitis and acute renal failure. We used a germ-free mouse model to investigate the role of host factors,...

Genomic O Island 122, Locus for Enterocyte Effacement, and the Evolution of Virulent Verocytotoxin-Producing Escherichia coli▿ †

Konczy, Paulina, Ziebell, Kim, Mascarenhas, Mariola, Choi, Aileen, Michaud, Corinne, Kropinski, Andrew M., ...

The locus of enterocyte effacement (LEE) and genomic O island 122 (OI-122) are pathogenicity islands in verocytotoxin-producing Escherichia coli (VTEC) serotypes that are associated with outbreaks...

Convergent Evolutionary Analysis Identifies Significant Mutations in Drug Resistance Targets of Mycobacterium tuberculosis▿ †

Hazbón, Manzour Hernando, Motiwala, Alifiya S., Cavatore, Magali, Brimacombe, Michael, Whittam, Thomas S., Alland, David

Mycobacterium tuberculosis adapts to the environment by selecting for advantageous single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). We studied whether advantageous SNPs could be distinguished from neutral...

Shiga Toxin–producing Escherichia coli Strains Negative for Locus of Enterocyte Effacement

Newton, Hayley J., Sloan, Joan, Bulach, Dieter M., Seemann, Torsten, Allison, Cody C., Tauschek, Marija, ...

The ehx plasmids of these strains are highly related, which suggests acquisition of the large plasmid was central to the strains’ emergence.

Characterization of the Escherichia coli O157:H7 Sakai GadE Regulon▿ †

Kailasan Vanaja, Sivapriya, Bergholz, Teresa M., Whittam, Thomas S.

Integrating laterally acquired virulence genes into the backbone regulatory network is important for the pathogenesis of Escherichia coli O157:H7, which has captured many virulence genes through...

Comparison of Probe Hybridization Array Typing to Multilocus Sequence Typing for Pathogenic Escherichia coli▿

McNamara, Sara E., Srinivasan, Usha, Zhang, Lixin, Whittam, Thomas S., Marrs, Carl F., Foxman, Betsy

Probe hybridization array typing (PHAT) is a previously validated, high-throughput, highly discriminatory binary typing method based on the presence or absence of genetic material. To increase the...

Surveillance for Shiga Toxin–producing Escherichia coli, Michigan, 2001–2005

Manning, Shannon D., Madera, Robbie T., Schneider, William, Dietrich, Stephen E., Khalife, Walid, Brown, William, ...

A surveillance system used different detection methods to estimate prevalence of Shiga toxin–producing Escherichia coli during 2003–2005 and 2001–2002. More non-O157 serotypes were detected by...

Multilocus Sequence Types Associated with Neonatal Group B Streptococcal Sepsis and Meningitis in Canada▿

Manning, Shannon D., Springman, A. Cody, Lehotzky, Erica, Lewis, Maggi A., Whittam, Thomas S., Davies, H. Dele

Group B streptococci (GBS), a leading cause of neonatal sepsis and meningitis, are transferred to neonates from colonized mothers during childbirth. Prior studies using multilocus sequence typing...