1887

Abstract

Summary

serotypes O6:K14, O8:K14 and O28:K28 are common in the natural environment, but rare in hospitals. Serotypes O14:K14 and O27:K14 predominate among clinical strains, but not in the environment, suggesting that the latter serotypes may be more suited for survival in the clinical setting. Consequently, 469 epidemiologically distinct strains of were tested for various putative virulence factors and analysed for associations with serotype. the factors positively associated with serotype O14:K14 were agglutination of five different species of red blood cells and expression of type 1 fimbriae. These were found in 63% and 53% of O14:K14 strains, respectively, compared with 7% and 12% of the three ‘environmental serotypes’. Almost a quarter of the collection expressed the mannose-resistant haemagglutinin indicative of type 3 fimbriae, but this was not associated with any serotype. the production of DNAase, haemolysin, lipase, lecithinase, proteases and siderophores was almost universal and showed no serotype correlations. Almost half of the strains (46%) were resistant to serum and serotypes O27:K14 and O6:K14 were strongly associated with this characteristic. Serotype O27:K14 was also associated with higher proportions of antibiotic-resistant strains than other serotypes, but the same was not true of serotype O14:K14. All three ‘environmental serotypes’ were associated with low frequencies of antibiotic resistance; <12% were resistant to gentamicin, carbenicillin or piperacillin, or any combination of these three, compared with 20–25% of O14:K14 strains and > 42–51% of O27:K14 strains. Pigment production was strongly associated with serotype. None of the O14:K14 or O27:K14 strains produced prodigiosin, but frequencies for the three ‘environmental serotypes’ ranged from 31% of O28:K28 strains to 85% of O6:K14 strains. the results of this study suggest that the adherence capability of strains may play a role in the colonisation of hospital patients, while the production of prodigiosin is a marker of environmental origin.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/00222615-47-12-1105
1998-12-01
2024-12-07
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/jmm/47/12/medmicro-47-12-1105.html?itemId=/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/00222615-47-12-1105&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. Farmer J. J., Davis B. R., Hickman F. W. Detection of Serratia outbreaks in hospital. Lancet 1976; 2:455–459
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Aucken H. M., Wilkinson S. G., Pitt T. L. Re-evaluation of the serotypes of Serratia marcescens and separation into two schemes based on lipopolysaccharide (O) and capsular polysaccharide (K) antigens. Microbiology 1998; 144:639–653
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Aucken H. M., Pitt T. L. Different O and K serotype distributions among clinical and environmental strains of Serratia marcescens. J Med Microbiol 1998; 47:1097–1104
    [Google Scholar]
  4. King E. O., Ward M. K., Raney D. E. Two simple media for the demonstration of pyocyanin and fluorescin. J Lab Clin Med 1954; 44:301–307
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Boyden S. V. The adsorption of proteins on erythrocytes treated with tannic acid and subsequent hemagglutination by anti-protein sera. J Exp Med 1951; 93:107–120
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Evans D. G., Evans D. J., Tjoa W. S. Hemagglutination of human group A erythrocytes by enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli isolated from adults with diarrhea: correlation with colonization factor. Infect Immun 1977; 18:330–337
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Old D. C., Adegbola R., Scott S. S. Multiple fimbrial haemagglutinins in Serratia species. Med Microbiol Immunol 1983; 172:107–115
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Barrow G. I., Feltham R. K. A. (eds) Cowan and Steel’s Manual for the identification of medical bacteria 3rd edn Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 1993201–203208
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Schwyn B., Neilands J. B. Universal chemical assay for the detection and determination of siderophores. Anal Biochem 1987; 160:47–56
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Report of the Working Party on Antibiotic Sensitivity Testing of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy A guide to sensitivity testing. J Antimicrob Chemother 1991; 27: Suppl D 1–50
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Grimont P. A. D., Grimont F. The genus Serratia. In Starr M. P., Stolp H., Truper H. G., Balows A., Schlegel H. G. (eds) The prokaryotes: a handbook on habitats, isolation, and identification of bacteria vol 2 Berlin: Springer-Verlag; 19811187–1203
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Hejazi A., Falkiner F. R. Serratia marcescens. J Med Microbiol 1997; 46:903–912
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Gaston M. A., Hoffman P. N., Pitt T. L. A comparison of strains of Serratia marcescens isolated from neonates with strains isolated from sporadic and epidemic infections in adults. J Hosp Infect 1986; 8:86–95
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Franczek S. P., Williams R. P., Hull S. I. A survey of potential virulence factors in clinical and environmental isolates of Serratia marcescens. J Med Microbiol 1986; 22:151–156
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Jann K., Jann B. Capsules of Escherichia coli, expression and biological significance. Can J Microbiol 1992; 38:705–710
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Valvano M. A. Pathogenicity and molecular genetics of O-specific side-chain lipopolysaccharides of Escherichia coli. Can J Microbiol 1992; 38:711–719
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Carbonell G. V., Levy C. E., Vidotto M. C. Serratia marcescens: studies on normal human serum resistance, serogrouping and pathogenicity for mice. Rev Microbiol 1992; 23:72–75
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Lambert H. P., O’Grady F. W. (eds) Antibiotics and Chemotherapy 5th edn Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone; 199211 109, 119, 139, 151, 212, 221, 252, 282
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Chamberland S., L’Ecuyer J., Lessard C., Bernier M., Provencher P., Bergeron M. G. and the Canadian Study Group. Antibiotic susceptibility profiles of 941 Gram-negative bacteria isolated from septicemic patients throughout Canada. Clin Infect Dis 1992; 15:615–628
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Holland S., Dale J. W. The effect of resistance plasmids on pigmentation of Serratia marcescens. Microbios Lett 1978; 9:85–89
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/00222615-47-12-1105
Loading
/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/00222615-47-12-1105
Loading

Data & Media loading...

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error