Genetic characterization of Shigella flexneri isolates in Guizhou Province, China

Shijun Li; Qiangzheng Sun; Xiaoyu Wei; John D Klena; Jianping Wang; Ying Liu; Kecheng Tian; Xia Luo; Changyun Ye; Jianguo Xu; Dingming Wang; Guangpeng Tang

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0116708

Genetic characterization of Shigella flexneri isolates in Guizhou Province, China

PLoS One. 2015 Jan 24;10(1):e0116708. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0116708. eCollection 2015.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Communicable Disease Control and Prevention, Guizhou Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 101 Bageyan Road, Guiyang, 550004, Guizhou, People's Republic of China.
² State Key Laboratory for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, Collaborative Innovation Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, National Institute for Communicable Disease Control and Prevention, China CDC, P.O. Box 5, Changping, Beijing, China.
³ International Emerging Infections Program, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China; Global Disease Detection Branch, Division of Global Health Protection, Center for Global Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America.

Abstract

Shigella flexneri is one of the major etiologic causes of shigellosis in Guizhou Province, China. However, the genetic characteristics of circulating isolates are unknown. Phenotypic and molecular profiles of 60 S. flexneri isolates recovered in Guizhou between 1972 to 1982 and 2008 to 2010 were determined. Nine serotypes (1a, 2a, 3a, 1b, 2b, X, Y, 4av and Yv) were identified. Multi-locus sequence typing differentiated the isolates into 20 sequence types (STs); 18 were novel. Four STs, ST 129, ST 100, ST 126 and ST 18, were most abundant, accounting for 65% of the isolates. Thirty-nine NotI-pulsed field gel electrophoresis patterns (pulsotypes, PTs) were observed; eight PTs were represented by more than one isolate with six isolates sharing the PT 13 profile. Multi-locus variable-nucleotide tandem-repeat analysis recognized 44 different types (MTs); seven MTs were represented by more than one isolate and MT 1 was most commonly encountered. Correlation between genetic relationships and serotypes was observed among the isolates studied; the majority of isolates belonging to the same serotype from different years clustered together based on the molecular data. These clustered isolates were also from similar geographical origins. These results enhance our understanding of genetic relationships between S. flexneri in Guizhou Province and can be used to help understand the changing etiology of shigellosis in China.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

China
Genotype
Minisatellite Repeats / genetics
Multilocus Sequence Typing
Serogroup
Shigella flexneri / genetics*
Shigella flexneri / isolation & purification

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the grant of national science and technology major project of China (No. 2009ZX10602-12), Talent Base Funds for Infectious Disease Control and Prevention in Guizhou Provincial Government (No. Qian Ren Ling Fa [2013] 15), National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81271788 and 81290345), National Basic Research Priorities Program (No. 2011CB504901) and National Key Program for Infectious Diseases of China (No. 2013ZX10004221, 013ZX10004216-001-002 and 2ZX10004215. We acknowledge the use of the EcMLST database which is operated by the Microbial Evolution Laboratory at Michigan State University. The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.