Conservation of deduced amino acid sequence of FimH among Escherichia coli of bovine, porcine and avian disease origin

The FimH subunit of type I pili mediates adhesion of Escherichia coli to epithelium in different animal hosts. In this study, we sequenced and analyzed the fimH genes of 24 E. coli strains from bovine and porcine clinical cases. The obtained sequences were compared among each other and also with 24 known fimH sequences from avian E. coli strains. This comparison revealed a substantial homology (>99%) among strains from the different animal species origins. Moreover, specific mutations were found, some of which were present more frequently in avian strains or in bovine and porcine strains. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.