Phylogeny of EHEC associated with HUS in the Czech Republic.

<p>Minimum-spanning tree illustrating the clonal relationship between HUS-associated EHEC from the Czech Republic (green) and the HUSEC collection <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0073927#pone.0073927-Mellmann1" target="_blank">[3]</a> (red) based on MLST allelic profiles. Each MLST sequence type (ST) is represented by a node named with its ST. The size of the node is proportional to the number of isolates reported in this study sharing the same ST. The number on the connecting lines indicates the number of alleles that were different between the two connected nodes. In addition, for the major serogroups (e.g. O157, O26) the STs and their corresponding clonal complexes (CC) were given and shaded in grey.</p

Seasonal distribution of EHEC strains of different serotypes isolated from patients with HUS in the Czech Republic, 1998–2012.

<p>Seasonal distribution of EHEC strains of different serotypes isolated from patients with HUS in the Czech Republic, 1998–2012.</p

Presence of OI 122 among EHEC isolates from HUS patients.

a<p><i>pagC</i> was present in one strain.</p>b<p>C, complete OI 122 (all genes tested present); I, incomplete OI 122 (<i>pagC</i> absent).</p

Phylogeny of EHEC isolated from HUS patients in the Czech Republic determined by MLST.

<p>ST, sequence type; CC, clonal complex; n.a., not assigned.</p>a<p>ST29 strains belong to the new EHEC O26 clone <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0073927#pone.0073927-Bielaszewska1" target="_blank">[7]</a>.</p

Phenotypes of EHEC strains isolated from patients with HUS in the Czech Republic.

a<p>EHEC-Hly, EHEC hemolysin production; α-Hly, α hemolysin production; growth on CT-SMAC, indicator of tellurite resistance; urease, urease production; SMAC, utilization of sorbitol on sorbitol MacConkey agar; SOR, utilization of sorbitol (API 20E); RHA, utilization of rhamnose (API 20E); LDC, production of lysine decarboxylase; GLR, production of ß-D-glucuronidase.</p>b<p>The highest dilution of culture supernatant which caused cytotoxicity in 50% Vero cells after 3 days.</p>c<p>Production of Stx1 and Stx2 tested using the VTEC - RPLA kit.</p>d<p>−, the phenotype was absent; +, the phenotype was present (the numbers in parentheses indicated numbers of positive strains in the case that not all strains expressed the respective phenotype).</p>e<p>one O26:H11 and O172:NM and Orough:NM strains did not express EHEC-<i>hlyA</i> gene.</p