Chinese and German researchers find the deadly E. coli sequence

The recent outbreak of deadly E. coli in Europe was caused by an entirely new super-toxic strain, Chinese and German researchers stated Thursday, right after finishing sequencing its genome.

By now, 17 Germans and 1 Swede have been killed after the outbreak, whilst a lot more than 2,000 people across Europe had been sickened. The number of individuals suffering from severe hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS) because of the infection has reached 470 in Germany.

In its most recent report, the Beijing Genomics Institute in Shenzhen (BGI-Shenzhen), China's flagship genome center, stated it "has just completed the sequence and carried out a preliminary analysis that shows the current infection is caused by an entirely new super-toxic E. coli strain."

BGI-Shenzhen was collaborating closely using the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf in Germany by using their genomic technologies.

The Chinese laboratory stated it had finished sequencing the genome of the bacterium upon receiving the bacterial DNA samples, using the support of the third-generation sequencing platform -- Ion Torrent.

"Bioinformatics analysis revealed that this E. coli is really a new strain of bacteria that's extremely infectious and toxic," BGI-Shenzhen said in the report, adding that the bacterium is an EHEC serotype O104 E. coli strain, which has by no means been involved in any E. coli outbreaks prior to.

The new strain was "super-toxic," as it has 93 percent sequence similarity using the EAEC 55989 E. coli strain, which was isolated within the Central African Republic and recognized for causing significant diarrhea.

Furthermore, it has "acquired specific sequences that appear to be similar to those involved inside the pathogenicity of hemorrhagic colitis and hemolytic-uremic syndrome."

The lethal bacterium also carries several antibiotic resistance genes, such as resistance to aminoglycoside, macrolides and Beta-lactam antibiotics, all of which makes antibiotic treatment really difficult, BGI-Shenzhen stated, adding the acquisition of these genes may have occurred by way of horizontal gene transfer.

Also on Thursday, experts from the University Hospital of Muenster in Germany and Life Technologies Corporation announced their joint study results, saying "the bacterium at the root of the deadly outbreak in Germany is really a new hybrid type of pathogenic E. coli strains."

"The information obtained from the DNA sequence shows the presence of genes usually discovered in two different sorts of E. coli: enteroaggregative E. coli (EAEC) and enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC)," said Life Technologies' laboratories in Darmstadt, Germany.

"The rapid entire genome sequencing results enabled us to discover inside days a exclusive mixture of virulence traits ... and makes this German outbreak clone a exclusive hybrid of diverse E. coli pathovars," said Dr. med. Alexander Mellmann, scientist at the German National Consulting Laboratory for Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS) at the Institute of Hygiene, University Hospital Muenster.

The business has provided the information in record speed, considering the severity of the outbreak, said Simone Guenther, who carried out the sequencing function in Life Technologies.

Life Technologies said the data could be employed by scientists at the University Hospital Muenster to develop greater tests to positively identify the illness in folks showing symptoms of the infection.

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