Cloning and sequencing of cnf1 from Escherichia coli incriminated in mink and bovine colibacillosis.

Colibacillosis is responsible for significant losses to the mink and cattle industries. Previous work in our laboratory and by others has suggested that possession of cnf1, the gene encoding cytotoxic necrotizing factor (CNF1), may contribute to the virulence of isolates of E. coli from mink and cattle. The cnf1 gene from E. coli isolated from a mink with colisepticaemia and a bovid with scours was amplified and cloned as a 3.5 kb fragment, and the fragment was sequenced. The cnf1 sequences from the mink and bovine isolates of E. coli were compared to each other and to cnf1 sequences of E. coli from urinary tract and diarrhoea-associated infections of humans. The difference was only 7 nucleotides between the cnf1 sequences of the mink and bovine isolates of E. coli, which translated into 7 differences in amino acids. The cnf1 sequence of the mink isolate of E. coli had 15 nucleotide differences from the cnf1 sequences of the human isolate of E. coli (GenBank X70670), which translated into 11 differences in amino acids between these proteins. The cnf1 sequence of the bovine isolate of E. coli had 14 nucleotide differences from the cnf1 sequence of the human isolate of E. coli (GenBank X70670), which translated into 10 differences in amino acids between these proteins. The highly conserved sequences of the amino acids of CNF1 proteins make them a promising target for detection and control of the CNF1-producing E. coli involved in disease among various host species.