Fitness of Outbreak and Environmental Strains of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in Aerosolizable Soil and Association of Clonal Variation in Stress Gene Regulation

Airborne dust from feedlots is a potential mechanism of contamination of nearby vegetable crops with Escherichia coli O157:H7 (EcO157). We compared the fitness of clinical and environmental strains of EcO157 in <45 µm soil from a spinach farm. Differences in survival were observed among the 35 strains with D-values (days for 90% decreases) ranging from 1–12 days. Strains that survived longer, generally, were from environmental sources and lacked expression of curli, a protein associated with attachment and virulence. Furthermore, the proportion of curli-positive (C(+)) variants of EcO157 strains decreased with repeated soil exposure and the strains that were curli-negative (C(−)) remained C(−) post-soil exposure. Soil exposure altered expression of stress-response genes linked to fitness of EcO157, but significant clonal variation in expression was measured. Mutations were detected in the stress-related sigma factor, rpoS, with a greater percentage occurring in parental strains of clinical origin prior to soil exposure. We speculate that these mutations in rpoS may confer a differential expression of genes, associated with mechanisms of survival and/or virulence, and thus may influence the fitness of EcO157.