Virulence determinants of diarrhoegenic <i>Escherichia coli</i> - A Mini Review

Abstract

Diarrhoegenic Escherichia coli are of a broad variety. A clear understanding of the virulence/pathogenicity determinants of pathogenic Escherichia coli is important as they affect a large section of the population in the tropical and developing areas of the world. Faecal contamination of food and water is the major route of infection for humans. Based on minor differences in surface structure chemistry there are over 800 serotypes of Escherichia coli. Diagnostic methods used nowadays focus on the detection of either specific toxins such as heat stable (ST), heat labile (LT) and their specific attributes for example colonization factors (CF's) and specific target genes for example eaeA, which permit the identification of the corresponding pathotype. Classification of E. coli is an evolving science and more categories of pathogenic E. coli will be identified in the future. The virulence determinants in E. coli play the major role in infections in both humans and animals.

Journal of Tropical Microbiology and Biotechnology Vol. 3(1) 2007: pp. 29-37