In:
Canadian Journal of Microbiology, Canadian Science Publishing, Vol. 52, No. 4 ( 2006-04-01), p. 301-307
Abstract:
The comparative ability of different methods to assess virulence of Listeria species was investigated in ten Listeria strains. All strains were initially subjected to pulsed-field gel electrophoresis analysis to determine their relatedness. Virulence characteristics were subsequently tested for by (i) determining the presence of six virulence genes by polymerase chain reaction; (ii) testing for the production of listeriolysin O, phosphatidylcholine phospholipase C, and phosphatidylinositol-specific phospholipase C; (iii) investigating the hydrophobicity of the strains; (iv) determining the strains ability to attach to, enter, and replicate within the Caco-2 cells. Variations in most of the virulence characteristics were obvious across the strains for the range of tests performed. A wide range of anomalous results among methods were apparent. In particular, the presence of virulence genes was found to be unrelated to the production of virulence-associated proteins in vitro, while virulence protein production and hydrophobicity in Listeria monocytogenes were found to be unrelated or marginally related, respectively, to the ability to invade the Caco-2 cell line. It was concluded that the methods investigated were unable to consistently and unequivocally measure the differences in the virulence properties of the strains.Key words: Listeria monocytogenes, virulence, pathogenicity.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
0008-4166
,
1480-3275
Language:
English
Publisher:
Canadian Science Publishing
Publication Date:
2006
detail.hit.zdb_id:
280534-0
detail.hit.zdb_id:
1481972-7
SSG:
12
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