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. 2021 Sep 23;11(1):18982.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-98228-w.

The prevailing O serogroups among the serologically differentiated clinical Proteus spp. strains in central Poland

Dominika Drzewiecka  1 , Agata Palusiak  2 , Małgorzata Siwińska  2 , Agnieszka Zabłotni  2
Affiliations

The prevailing O serogroups among the serologically differentiated clinical Proteus spp. strains in central Poland

Dominika Drzewiecka et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

In the years 2006-2011, 617 Proteus spp. strains isolated mostly from urine and wounds or other clinical sources were collected in Łódź, Poland, to determine the offensive O serotypes frequently occurring among patients. P. mirabilis exhibited the most intensive swarming growth and was dominating species (86.9%), followed by P. genomospecies, P. vulgaris, and P. penneri. Ninety four per cent strains were recognized as S (smooth) forms. Serological studies (involving ELISA-enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and Western blotting using native and adsorbed rabbit antisera) enabled classification of 80% S isolates into respective Proteus O serogroups among the 83 ones, described so far. The remaining strains seemed to be serologically unique. Despite the observed big serological variety of Proteus spp. isolates, we found the O78 serogroup recently described in Poland as dominating and identified other widespread serotypes: O3, O6, O10, O11, O27, O28, and O30 reported earlier as predominating also in other countries; O77 and O79 detected lately in Poland; O16, O18, O20, and O50. No unique structural feature of the prevalent O serotypes has been indicated. However, the prevalence of some O serogroups indicates that particular serotypes may be in some ways beneficial to the strains producing these kinds of O antigen.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The sources of isolation of the whole collection of 617 Proteus spp. strains and separately: P. mirabilis isolates (a), P. penneri isolates (b), P. genomospecies isolates (c), and P. vulgaris isolates (d) [this work and–].
Figure 2
Figure 2
Western blots of O77 LPS (1) and proteinase K-treated biomasses (a) or LPSs (b) of the strains (2–17) classified to O77 serogroup with O77-specific serum.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Western blots of homologous LPSs (1) and proteinase K-treated biomasses of selected strains (2–10) preliminarily classified to O3 serogroup (a), O10 serogroup (b), O28 serogroup (c), and O50 serogroup (d) with the respective antisera.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Western blots of O78 LPS (1) and proteinase K-treated biomasses of selected strains (2–6) classified into O78 serogroup with O78 antiserum (a) and O78 antiserum adsorbed by the strain 2 (b).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Classification of 580 S Proteus spp. strains into O serogroups [this work and–].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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