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Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, August 2002, p. 2644-2647, Vol. 46, No. 8
0066-4804/02/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/AAC.46.8.2644-2647.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
gyrA Polymorphism in Campylobacter jejuni: Detection of gyrA Mutations in 162 C. jejuni Isolates by Single-Strand Conformation Polymorphism and DNA Sequencing
Antti Hakanen,1,2* Jari Jalava,1 Pirkko Kotilainen,2 Hannele Jousimies-Somer,3,4 Anja Siitonen,5 and Pentti Huovinen1
Antimicrobial Research Laboratory, National Public Health Institute,1
Department of Medicine, Turku University Central Hospital, Turku,2
Anaerobe Reference Laboratory,3
Laboratory of Enteric Pathogens, National Public Health Institute,5
Microbiology Laboratory, The Mehiläinen Hospital, Helsinki, Finland4
Received 15 November 2001/
Returned for modification 12 February 2002/
Accepted 26 April 2002

ABSTRACT
Mutations in the quinolone resistance-determining region of
the
gyrA gene from 138 ciprofloxacin-resistant (MIC,

4 µg/ml)
and 24 ciprofloxacin-susceptible (MIC,

1 µg/ml) clinical
Campylobacter jejuni isolates were subjected to single-strand
conformation polymorphism analysis and sequencing. All of the
isolates could be assigned to three genotypic clusters based
on silent mutations. All resistant isolates had a point mutation
at codon 86.

TEXT
Fluoroquinolones are the antimicrobials most commonly used for
treatment of adults with
Campylobacter infections. During the
1990s, however, resistance to this antimicrobial group has increased
worldwide among
Campylobacter spp. (
3,
8,
9,
12-
15,
18,
19,
21,
22). The primary target of the fluoroquinolones in
Campylobacter jejuni has been shown to be DNA gyrase, a type II topoisomerase
that is an essential enzyme for DNA replication (
2,
20). DNA
gyrase is composed of two A subunits and two B subunits encoded
by the
gyrA and
gyrB genes, respectively. A point mutation in
the quinolone resistance-determining region (QRDR) of the
gyrA gene at codon 86 (ACA to ATA), substituting isoleucine for threonine,
is the most common cause of class-wide fluoroquinolone resistance
among
C. jejuni isolates (
17,
24,
27). There have also been
anecdotal reports of mutations leading to additional amino acid
changes, as well as silent nucleotide mutations (
1,
24,
27).
The purpose of the present study was to explore the molecular epidemiology of the QRDR of gyrA among C. jejuni isolates. To this end, we analyzed the QRDR (codons 69 to 120) of gyrA from 138 ciprofloxacin-resistant and 24 ciprofloxacin-susceptible clinical C. jejuni isolates by single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) analysis and DNA sequencing.
A total of 162 clinical C. jejuni isolates collected in Finland between 1995 and 2000 were included in this study. All isolates were from stool samples, and the majority (n = 158) were collected from Finnish travelers returning from 22 different countries. Four isolates were from Finnish patients without any travel history. One hundred thirty-eight of the isolates were resistant to ciprofloxacin (MIC,
4 µg/ml), and 24 were ciprofloxacin susceptible (MIC,
1 µg/ml). The ciprofloxacin MICs were 8 µg/ml for 10 of the ciprofloxacin-resistant isolates and
16 µg/ml for 128 of the ciprofloxacin-resistant isolates. The resistant isolates were from travelers to 20 different countries, the majority being from travelers to Spain (34%) and Thailand (21%). The susceptible isolates were from travelers to 12 countries, the number of isolates varying between one and three from each country.
Chromosomal DNA from each strain was prepared by boiling for 10 min and proteinase K (Promega, Madison, Wis.) digestion for 30 min. DNA was amplified by PCR for the gyrA gene as described by Wang et al. (24). One microliter of [
-32P]dCTP (activity, 10 µCi/µl) was added to each PCR mixture for SSCP. SSCP was run in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions on nondenaturing MDE Gel (BioWhittaker Molecular Applications, Rockland, Maine) at 4°C. Autoradiograms were incubated overnight. The QRDR of the gyrA gene was sequenced in both directions with PCR primers from one or more representative isolates belonging to a different SSCP pattern (Table 1). Sequencing of a nonradioactive PCR product was performed with an ABI Prism BigDye Terminator Kit (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, Calif.). All of the gyrA sequences of the different SSCP patterns were confirmed by PCR and sequencing with two additional oligonucleotide primers, Cj-gyrA-393 (5'-CTTTGCCTGACGCAAGAG-3') and Cj-gyrA-759r (5'-TCGCTTTCTGAACCATCA-3'). One representative isolate of every different SSCP pattern was confirmed to be C. jejuni by 16S rRNA gene sequencing (6). C. jejuni RH3583 was used as a control strain.
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TABLE 1. SSCP patterns and QRDRs of gyrA of 138 ciprofloxacin-resistant and 24 ciprofloxacin-susceptible C. jejuni isolates
|
On the basis of the SSCP patterns of the QRDR of
gyrA, all 138
ciprofloxacin-resistant
C. jejuni isolates could be distinguished
from the 24 susceptible isolates. Eight different SSCP patterns
were found: five among the ciprofloxacin-resistant isolates
and three among the ciprofloxacin-susceptible isolates. These
patterns were designated as follows. Roman numerals I to III
were used to define the three susceptible SSCP patterns. The
subscript CIP-S indicates ciprofloxacin susceptibility, and
the subscript CIP-R indicates ciprofloxacin resistance. The
numerals after the subscript CIP-R define resistant variants
within each cluster.
The most common susceptible SSCP pattern was IIICIP-S, with 15 (63%) isolates, followed by patterns ICIP-S and IICIP-S, with 7 (29%) and 2 (8%) isolates, respectively (Fig. 1). The most common resistant SSCP pattern, IIICIP-R1, was exhibited by 113 (82%) resistant isolates. Pattern ICIP-R1 was exhibited by 21 (15%) resistant isolates, pattern IIICIP-R2 was exhibited by 2 (1.4%) resistant isolates, and patterns ICIP-R2 and ICIP-R3 were exhibited by 1 resistant isolate each.
We sequenced the
gyrA QRDRs of 1 to 12 representative
C. jejuni isolates of all eight defined SSCP patterns (Table
1). Compared
to ciprofloxacin-susceptible
C. jejuni UA580 (
24) and
C. jejuni NCTC 11168 (
11), all of the resistant isolates sequenced had
a point mutation at codon 86 (ACA to ATA), substituting isoleucine
for threonine. Two resistant isolates harbored one additional
mutation leading to an amino acid change each. In addition,
silent mutations were identified among isolates with SSCP patterns
III
CIP-R1 and III
CIP-R2 (Table
1).
Among members of the ciprofloxacin-susceptible C. jejuni population, the QRDRs of gyrA from the representative isolates (C. jejuni IH 111169 and C. jejuni IH 111607; Fig. 1 and Table 1) showing SSCP pattern ICIP-S were identical to those of C. jejuni UA580 (24) and C. jejuni NCTC 11168 (11). None of the susceptible C. jejuni isolates had mutations leading to amino acid changes. However, silent nucleic acid mutations were observed. The QRDR of gyrA from the representative isolates (C. jejuni IH 41670 and C. jejuni IH 111677; Fig. 1 and Table 1) showing SSCP pattern IICIP-S and from those showing SSCP pattern IIICIP-S (C. jejuni RH 3583 and C. jejuni IH 41957; Fig. 1 and Table 1) had mutations in two and three codons, respectively.
Genetic variation of the QRDR of gyrA in C. jejuni was demonstrated here by the finding of eight SSCP patterns among our whole study population and, in particular, by identification of three defined SSCP patterns among members of the ciprofloxacin-susceptible population. Considering the relatively small number of susceptible isolates studied, it seems likely that additional variants of C. jejuni do exist. This polymorphism is surprising because bacterial topoisomerase genes are generally highly conserved even across the borders of the bacterial genera (4, 5, 7, 10, 16, 23, 24). However, the present findings are in line with the results of the C. jejuni genome sequencing project reported by Parkhill et al. (11), who found hypervariability in the sequence of C. jejuni NCTC 11168. They suspected that C. jejuni might be lacking in DNA repair functions. They also assumed that it may not be possible to produce a single definitive sequence for the C. jejuni genome (11).
Since fluoroquinolones are currently recommended as the first-choice empirical therapy for adult patients with suspected bacterial gastroenteritis, recognition of C. jejuni as the causative agent of a patient's disease is important, as is its susceptibility to antimicrobial agents. Many studies have shown that the Thr-86-Ile mutation in the QRDR of gyrA is the most common mechanism causing ciprofloxacin resistance in C. jejuni (17, 24, 27). Consequently, several molecular techniques have been developed to detect this particular mutation (25-27). If specific primers or probes are used, the nucleic acid variation on the areas described in this report or in previous reports (1, 24, 27) might confuse the primer-target interaction and cause false results. This should be considered in clinical laboratories if traditional susceptibility testing methods are replaced with modern PCR- or hybridization-based methods to detect the mutation at codon 86 (Thr to Ile).
A total of 130 ciprofloxacin-resistant and 23 ciprofloxacin-susceptible C. jejuni isolates from patients with an identified travel history were evaluated for their SSCP pattern profiles (Table 2). Of the five different resistant genotypic variants, two SSCP patterns were dominant while the other three were exhibited by merely one or two resistant isolates. The main pattern, defined as IIICIP-R1, which was presented by 113 (82%) resistant isolates, has also prevailed in earlier studies (27). This pattern seems to have spread all over the world, whereas pattern ICIP-R1 was found mainly in Europe. Unexpectedly, pattern ICIP-S, which is identical to the C. jejuni wild-type sequence described by Wang et al. (24), was not our leading susceptible variant. Pattern IIICIP-S exceeded this wild-type pattern in frequency, with a percentages of 63 versus 29%.
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TABLE 2. Geographical distribution of the SSCP patterns of gyrA of 130 ciprofloxacin-resistant and 23 ciprofloxacin-susceptible C. jejuni isolates
|
In conclusion, consistent with earlier findings, all of the
resistant
C. jejuni isolates sequenced here had the Thr-86-Ile
mutation in the QRDR of
gyrA. Only this mutation distinguished
the two main resistant genotypic variants from the two main
susceptible variants, suggesting a common origin. Considering
that three different SSCP patterns were identified among the
relatively small number of susceptible isolates studied, it
seems likely that additional variants of
C. jejuni exist. Polymorphism
of the QRDR of
gyrA should be considered when any PCR- or hybridization-based
method is used to detect the Thr-86-Ile mutation in
gyrA as
an indication of
C. jejuni fluoroquinolone resistance.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We are indebted to Tero Mustalahti for performing sequencing
reactions and to Liisa Immonen, Minna Lamppu, Satu Linko, Tiina
Muuronen, Erkki Nieminen, and Tuula Randell for technical assistance.
This work was supported by a grant from the Maud Kuistila Memorial Foundation and a special government (EVO) grant from Turku University Central Hospital (both to A.H.).

FOOTNOTES
* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Antimicrobial Research Laboratory, National Public Health Institute, P.O. Box 57, 20521 Turku, Finland. Phone: 358 2 2519255. Fax: 358 2 2519254. E-mail:
antti.hakanen{at}utu.fi.


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Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, August 2002, p. 2644-2647, Vol. 46, No. 8
0066-4804/02/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/AAC.46.8.2644-2647.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
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