Molecular characterization of Campylobacter jejuni clones: a basis for epidemiologic investigation

Emerg Infect Dis. 2002 Sep;8(9):949-55. doi: 10.3201/eid0809.020122.

Abstract

A total of 814 isolates of the foodborne pathogen Campylobacter jejuni were characterized by multilocus sequence typing (MLST) and analysis of the variation of two cell-surface components: the heat-stable (HS) serotyping antigen and the flagella protein FlaA short variable region. We identified 379 combinations of the MLST loci (sequence types) and 215 combinations of the cell-surface components among these isolates, which had been obtained from human disease, animals, food, and the environment. Despite this diversity, 748 (92%) of the isolates belonged to one of 17 clonal complexes, 6 of which contained many (318, 63%) of the human disease isolates. Several clonal complexes exhibited associations with isolation source or particular cell-surface components; however, the latter were poorly predictive of clonal complex. These data demonstrate that the clonal complex, as defined by MLST, is an epidemiologically relevant unit for both long and short-term investigations of C. jejuni epidemiology.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Bacterial Proteins / genetics
  • Bacterial Typing Techniques
  • Campylobacter Infections / epidemiology*
  • Campylobacter Infections / microbiology*
  • Campylobacter jejuni / classification*
  • Campylobacter jejuni / genetics*
  • Campylobacter jejuni / isolation & purification
  • Flagellin / genetics
  • Genes, Bacterial / genetics
  • Genetic Variation / genetics
  • Genotype
  • Humans
  • Membrane Proteins / genetics
  • Sequence Analysis, DNA

Substances

  • Bacterial Proteins
  • Membrane Proteins
  • Flagellin
  • flaA protein, bacteria