Replicon typing of virulence plasmids of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli isolates from cattle.

Plasmid DNA hybridization with probes for virulence factors used for basic replicons of plasmids was used to identify the virulence plasmids of a collection of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli isolates from cattle. The virulence probes were derived from the genes coding for the heat-stable enterotoxin STaP and for the F5 (K99) and F41 fimbrial adhesins. The replicon probes were derived from 16 different basic replicons of plasmids (probes repFIA, repFIB, repFIC, repFIIA, repI1, repHI1, repHI2, repL/M, repN, repP, repQ, repT, repU, repW, repX, and repY). The virulence genes coding for the STaP enterotoxin and for the F5 adhesin were located on a single plasmid band in each isolate. The sizes of most of these virulence plasmids were from 65 to 95 MDa. The F41 probe failed to hybridize with any plasmid band. The virulence plasmids had multireplicon types typical of plasmids of the IncF groups. The most common basic replicon association was the triple RepFIA-RepFIB-RepFIC family association.