Coli surface antigen 26 acts as an adherence determinant of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli and is cross-recognized by anti-CS20 antibodies

Abstract

Copyright © 2018 Cádiz, Torres, Valdés, Vera, Gutiérrez, Levine, Montero, O'Ryan, Rasko, Stine, Vidal and Del Canto. The coli surface antigen 26 (CS26) of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) had been described as a putative adhesive pilus based on the partial sequence of the crsH gene, detected in isolates from children with diarrhea in Egypt. However, its production and activity as adherence determinant has not been experimentally addressed. The crsH was identified as a homolog of genes encoding structural subunits of ETEC colonization factors (CFs) CS12, CS18, and CS20. These CFs, along with the recently discovered CS30, belong to the γ2 family of pili assembled by the chaperone-usher pathway (CU pili). Further, the complete CS26 locus, crsHBCDEFG, was described in an O141 ETEC strain (ETEC 100664) obtained from a diarrhea case in The Gambia, during the Global Enterics Multicenter Study. Here, we report that CS26 is a pilus of ~10 nm in diameter, with the capacity to increase the