The Oligonucleotide primers of virulence-associated genes used in this study.

<p>The Oligonucleotide primers of virulence-associated genes used in this study.</p

The prevalence of virulence-associated genes among 74 uropathogenic <i>E</i>. <i>coli</i> isolates from cats.

<p>The 29 virulence-associated genes analysed were: <i>afa/draBC</i>, Dr-binding adhesins; <i>fimH</i>, mannose-specific adhesin of type 1 fimbriae; <i>papA</i>, P fimbriae structural subunit; <i>papE</i>, fimbriae tip pilins; <i>papC</i>, p fimbriae assembly; <i>papG</i>, p fimbriae adhesin (and alleles I, II, and III); <i>sfa/focDE</i>, S and F1C fimbriae; <i>sfaS</i>, S fimbriae; <i>focG</i>, <i>focA</i>, F1C fimbriae; <i>bmaE</i>, blood group M fimbriae; <i>hlyD</i>, <i>hlyA</i>, α-haemolysin; <i>cnf1</i>, cytotoxic necrotizing factor type 1; <i>kpsM</i> II, group 2 capsule in addition to specifically targeting K1 and K5 genes; <i>rfc</i>, O antigen polymerase; <i>fyuA</i>, ferric yersiniabactin receptor; <i>iutA</i>, aerobactin receptor; <i>iroN</i>, almochelin receptor; <i>ireA</i>, iron-responsive element gene; <i>ibeA</i>, invasion of brain endothelium; <i>traT</i>, serum-resistance associated; PAI, pathogenicity island; <i>cvaC</i>, Colicin-V.</p><p>The prevalence of virulence-associated genes among 74 uropathogenic <i>E</i>. <i>coli</i> isolates from cats.</p

Maximum likelihood tree constructed using MEGA 6.0 based on the nucleotide sequences of seven housekeeping genes: <i>adk</i>, <i>gyrB</i>, <i>fumC</i>, <i>icd</i>, <i>mdh</i>, <i>purA</i> and <i>recA</i>, and depicting infrerred phylogency of 74 uropathogenic <i>E</i>. <i>coli</i> (UPCE) from cats.

<p>Resistant phenotype (RP), phylogenetic group (PG), sequence type (ST), ST clonal complex (STcc; “N” indicates No STcc), virulence-associated genes and the prevalence of ESBL were displayed the right of the dendrogram. Virulence-associated genes were arranged in descending order according their corresponding prevalence. Gray square indicates the presence of the virulence-associated genes and ESBL. The sequence types highlighted in red were also found to be associated with both humans and other animals, and sequence types highlighted in blue were identified in humans or animals, or in water.</p

Splits tree decomposition network was obtained using distance matrix obtained from allelic profiles using a web version of Splits-Tree (http://pubmlst.org/analysis/).

<p>Most groups A and B1 isolates had shorter branches, suggesting that they were closely related as the group A and B1 isolates were considered as sister groups.</p