Transcriptional profiling of 2 outbreak strains of E. coli O157:H7 following exposure to epithelial cells

Two outbreak strains of E. coli O157:H7 differ phylogenetically, in gene content, and in epidemiological characteristics. The working hypothesis in this experiment was that these strains will also differ in the transcription of shared virulence genes. Indeed, following a 30 minute exposure to epithelial cells, strain TW14359 overexpressed major and ancillary virulence genes, relative to strain Sakai. E. coli O157:H7 strains were physiologically normalized by growth to stationary phase, twice, in MOPS minimal media. Cultures were then transferred to DMEM media for adaptation. After 3 h of growth in DMEM, O157:H7 cultures were used to infect monolayers of MAC-T epithelial cells. 30 min following incubation, aliquots of suspended, non-adherent bacteria were used for RNA extraction. Five biological replications of the experiment were performed with each strain and, together with dye-swaps, 10 array hybridizations were carried out. Array data were fitted to a mixed model ANOVA using the following linear model: array+dye+sample (biological replicate)+strain+error.