Altered colonizing ability for mouse large intestine of a surface mutant of a human faecal isolate of Escherichia coli.

Escherichia coli F-17 Sr a human faecal isolate, is resistant to the T-series of bacteriophages (i.e. T2 to T7). A T2-sensitive mutant of E. coli F-17 Sr was isolated following acriflavin treatment. This mutant, E. coli F-17 Sr Ts was found to be sensitive to the entire T-series of phages. E. coli F-17 Sr and E. coli F-17 Sr Ts did not differ quantitatively in total LPS content. However, analysis of LPS revealed that a large fraction of E. coli F-17 Sr Ts was devoid of O-side-chains. This accounted for the sensitivity of this strain to bacteriophages T3, T4, and T7. In addition, E. coli F-17 Sr Ts contained only about half the amount of capsular material contained by E. coli F-17 Sr accounting for the sensitivity of the mutant to bacteriophages T2, T5, and T6. Although the two strains colonized equally well when fed individually to streptomycin-treated mice, when fed simultaneously to streptomycin-treated mice, E. coli F-17 Sr Ts colonized at a level of about 1 x 10(8) cells (g faeces)-1, whereas E. coli F-17 Sr colonized at only 1 x 10(4) cells (g faeces)-1. These studies suggest that bacterial cell surface components modulate the large intestine colonizing ability of E. coli F-17 Sr in the mouse large intestine.