Isolation of human pathogen Escherichia albertii from faeces of seals (Leptonychotes weddelli) in James Ross Island, Antarctica

• Published in: Czech Polar Reports
• Main Authors: Sedláček, Ivo, Grillová, Linda, Kroupová, Eva, Černohlávková, Jitka, Šmajs, David
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Masaryk University Press 2013
• Subjects: Antarc*; Antarctic; Antarctica; James Ross Island; Leptonychotes weddelli; Ross Island
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.5817/cpr2013-2-18; https://journals.muni.cz/CPR/article/viewFile/12839/11171

A set of nine gram-negative fermenting rods biochemically identified as Escherichia coli was isolated from faeces of seals. These bacteria were characterized by phenotypic classification, 16S rDNA sequence analyses, automated ribotyping, study of whole-cell protein profiles by SDS-PAGE and finally by bacteriocin production. The results of our polyphasic taxonomic study supported the recognition of P4652, P4653 and P4740 isolates as true members of Escherichia albertii species – probably a major enteric human pathogen. To our best knowledge, this is the first evidence showing that E. albertii produces bacteriocin, colicin D. Obtained data unambiguously showed incon-venience of commercial identification systems to distinguish both Escherichia species due to missing data of E. albertii in the commercial databases. The results of Escherichia isolates taxonomy suggest seals as a novel source of human and animal pathogen,E. albertii in the Antarctic region.