Insertions, deletions, and single-nucleotide polymorphisms at rare restriction enzyme sites enhance discriminatory power of polymorphic amplified typing sequences, a novel strain typing system for Escherichia coli O157:H7.

Polymorphic amplified typing sequences (PATS) for Escherichia coli O157:H7 (O157) was previously based on indels containing XbaI restriction enzyme sites occurring in O-island sequences of the O157 genome. This strain-typing system, referred to as XbaI-based PATS, typed every O157 isolate tested in a reproducible, rapid, straightforward, and easy-to-interpret manner and had technical advantages over pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). However, the system was less discriminatory than PFGE and was unable to differentiate fully between unrelated isolates. To overcome this drawback, we enhanced PATS by using another infrequently cutting restriction enzyme, AvrII (also known as BlnI), to identify additional polymorphic regions that could increase the discriminatory ability of PATS typing. Referred to as AvrII-based PATS, the system identified seven new polymorphic regions in the O157 genome. Unlike XbaI, polymorphisms involving AvrII sites were caused by both indels and single-nucleotide polymorphisms occurring in O-island and backbone sequences of the O157 genome. AvrII-based PATS by itself provided poor discrimination of the O157 isolates tested. However, when primer pairs amplifying the seven polymorphic AvrII sites were combined with those amplifying the eight polymorphic XbaI sites (combined PATS), the discriminatory power of PATS was enhanced. Combined PATS matched related O157 isolates better than PFGE while differentiating between unrelated isolates. PATS typed every O157 isolate tested and directly targeted polymorphic sequences responsible for differences in the restriction digest patterns of O157 genomic DNA, utilizing PCR rather than relying on gel electrophoresis. This enabled PATS to resolve the ambiguity in PFGE typing, including that arising from the "more distantly related" and "untypeable" profiles.