Letters in Applied Microbiology 1998, 27, 121–123
Letters to the Editor VANCOMYCIN SUSCEPTIBILITY AS AN AID TO THE IDENTIFICATION OF LACTOBACILLI
J.M.T. Hamilton-Miller and S. Shah (1998) Letters in Applied Microbiology 26, 135–136.
Sir—We are very grateful to Devriese and Butaye for drawing attention to the earlier report by Dutta and Devriese. The latter found that Lactobacillus acidophilus was the only species that was sensitive to the glycopeptide antibiotic avoparcin. We regret not having found this paper earlier. It is worth making three points:
Sir—This most interesting report on the differential susceptibility of lactobacilli to the glycopeptide antibiotic vancomycin as being helpful in the speciation of lactobacilli has an ancestor which appeared quite appropriately in the ancestral Journal of Applied Bacteriology: the paper ‘Sensitivity and resistance to growth promoting agents in animal lactobacilli’ in vol. 51 (1981), p. 283–288 by G.N. Dutta and one of the undersigned, describes the same findings with another glycopeptide avoparcin. The failure of Hamilton-Miller and Shah to recognize this early report is easily understood, of course, because the findings were only indirectly suggested as identification aids at that time. Anyhow, the one or the other paper may serve as a confirmation of a general characteristic of the glycopeptide antibiotic family and the lactobacilli.
1. The conditions used for sensitivity testing by Dutta and Devriese (MRS agar at pH 6·2) were very different from ours (IsoSensitest agar with lysed horse blood at pH 7·4). 2. There may not be complete cross-sensitivity between avoparcin and vancomycin. 3. Most importantly, 3 of the 23 L. acidophilus strains tested by Dutta and Devriese were resistant to avoparcin. Thus, while their statement ‘‘only L. acidophilus strains were susceptible to avoparcin’’ is correct, their findings differ from ours in that all the L. acidophilus (19 strains) and L. delbrueckii (5 strains) we have tested were susceptible to vancomycin, and all strains of other species (26 strains) were resistant. This discrepancy may be due to some misalignment between results using the identification schemes of Rogosa on one hand, and the API 50 CHL on the other.
Luc A. Devriese and Patrick Butaye
J.M.T. Hamilton-Miller and Saroj Shah
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine University of Ghent Saliburylaan 133 B-9820 Merelbeke, Belgium
© 1998 The Society for Applied Microbiology
Department of Medical Microbiology Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine London NW3 2QG UK
122 L ET TE R S T O T H E E DI T OR
ESCHERICHIA COLI ON THE WWW
Sir—The ‘E. coli Index’ was created on the World Wide Web as a new tool to aid bacteriologists in finding relevant Web resources. Since then it’s content has increased considerably and includes valuable material relating to pathogenic Escherichia coli. During outbreaks of the pathogenic O157:H7 strain, such as the recent one in Scotland, the page was accessed by at least 5000 people. This constitutes an important means of providing correct and current information to the public. The development of this and other resources of the ‘E. coli index’ will be discussed in this letter as well as an analysis of the readership distribution. The ‘E. coli index’ (http://sun1.bham.ac.uk/bcm4ght6/ res.html) was created in March 1995, as a series of pages which would bring together all WWW sites with relevant information. Since then, it has been expanded to provide a range of material concerning E. coli as well as a series of links to a whole spectrum of specialized sites. These include databases of E. coli genes, proteins and metabolism, details of individual researchers, microbiological societies, journals, protocols, and extensive text relating to E. coli as a pathogen. The ‘E. coli Index’ has been mentioned in articles on the Internet (Rudd 1996; Pallen 1997) as well as in Microbiological Society magazines (Knight 1995; Infotech News 1995). While there are now many other microbiologically related pages on the WWW, the ‘E. coli Index’ remains the only one exclusively dedicated to one bacterial species, attempting to provide up-to-date information on this important bacterium.
access the E. coli Index. Material is thus available for all interested individuals or groups throughout the world. The number and range of individuals accessing the pages can be monitored and these statistics are available. In addition queries from the interested parties can be addressed and answered. The pathogenic E. coli pages
A major subsection of the ‘E. coli index’ has been set up dealing with pathogenic aspects. Introductory information is provided describing the different pathotypes of E. coli, such as enterohaemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) and enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC). Also, similar information is provided describing the virulence factors of these pathogenic microorganisms, such as toxin production and iron acquisition mechanisms. Recently, selected reports of relevant meetings have also been included. The E. coli abstracts
In order to disseminate extremely recent material concerning E. coli, a new on-line resource has been created which publishes abstracts from meetings relating to any aspect of E. coli biology. In collaboration with Dr James Kaper (University of Baltimore, USA), the first eight volumes of the ‘E. coli abstracts’ will contain abstracts from VTEC ’97, a major international meeting concerning verocytotoxin producing E. coli (VTEC). The first of these volumes went on-line during December 1997, and subsequent volumes will be added every month. These papers will constitute an important resource for the pathogenic E. coli research community.
Placing the material on the WWW
Information is written in hypertext markup language (HTML) and uploaded to the University of Birmingham Web server. Accompanying graphics are uploaded in a similar manner. All files on the Web server have a given address which can be accessed from a remote site using the WWW. The WWW address for the front page of the ‘E. coli Index’ is: ‘‘http://sun1.bham.ac.uk/bcm4ght6/res.html’’. Links to all the other subsections are available through this home page. A sample of addresses for these subsections are shown in Table 1. Unlike journals, reviews or textbooks, the material on the WWW can be continuously up-dated. As new observations or reports are published they can be rapidly added to the page and thus become immediately available.
The Individual Researchers Pages
A comprehensive list of E. coli researchers with WWW pages has been compiled as the ‘Individual Researchers’ pages of the ‘E. coli index’. New research groups are added frequently as more WWW pages are constructed. The ability to use colour, photographs and artwork makes these images very approachable and they can thus be understood by people of all scientific backgrounds. Geographically, most of the entries are from North America, where the majority of universities have high quality and comprehensive WWW pages; the coverage is much lower in Europe and the rest of the world. Access Statistics
Accessing the materials from the WWW
Anyone with a computer attached to a modem-link and Web browser software such as Netscape or Internet Explorer, can
While the site is mainly accessed from university terminals, the recent upsurge in outbreaks due to enterohaemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) has meant that a wider readership has become
© 1998 The Society for Applied Microbiology, Letters in Applied Microbiology 27, 121–123
L ET TE R S T O T H E E DI T OR 123
Table 1 Addresses of some
subsections of the ‘E. coli Index’
— –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Title WWW Address (URL) — –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Pathogenic E. coli http://sun1.bham.ac.uk/bcm4ght6/path/path.html , EHEC http://sun1.bham.ac.uk/bcm4ght6/path/enhe.html , Toxins http://sun1.bham.ac.uk/bcm4ght6/path/tox.html The E. coli abstracts
http://sun1.bham.ac.uk/bcm4ght6/vtec/vtectit.html
Individual researchers
http://sun1.bham.ac.uk/bcm4ght6/indi/indi.html
Journals http://sun1.bham.ac.uk/bcm4ght6/jor.html — ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
interested. Many have been directed via news agencies like CNN and the Electronic Telegraph from which the page has been linked. Frequent accesses from many laboratory-based terminals indicates that the E. coli Index has become a laboratory tool similar to a handbook or laboratory manual. In addition there are frequently (about 10/week) questions sent to the ‘E. coli index’. These vary from questions from the general public to questions from students and members of the E. coli research community.
expanded to contain specialized pages for specific scientific areas, for example, cell division and anaerobic respiration. The ‘on-line’ journals pages are constantly changing, due to regular additions of new journals or changes in the level of access of existing ones. The site will also be accessible from a WWW site in North America, based at the University of Wisconsin, allowing faster access for users in the USA and Canada. The address for this new site is: ‘‘http://www.genetics.wisc.edu/ecoindex/index.html’’. G.H. Thomas*† and K.A. Bettelheim1
On-line journals relating to E. coli
Gradually publishing houses are producing on-line versions of their journals. Most papers can be downloaded after payment as .pdf files for use with the Adobe Acrobat software. This allows high quality reproductions of papers direct from the Internet. Also, the ability to view future contents is an added advantage of this format. Most journals require subscription for access to full papers, but abstracts are usually still available. The on-line journals which publish articles concerning E. coli are listed in the ‘journals’ section of the E. coli index. Also, a list of E. coli based research papers to which there is full free access is maintained in the ‘Full Research Papers’ section. These papers include sample papers from popular journals, review articles and full research papers. Full papers are often from less widely read journals like Biochemistry (Moscow), Microbiologı´a SEM and the Journal of Biochemistry (Japan), and therefore constitute another useful resource. It is hoped that the ‘E. coli index’ will be increasingly used by scientists and the general public alike, and that it will help in establishing contacts between the E. coli research community. The ‘Individual Researchers’ pages will be
School of Biochemistry, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK 1 E. coli Reference Laboratory, Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory, Victoria, Australia *Current address. Nitrogen Fixation Laboratory, John Innes Centre, Colney Lane, Norwich, UK. †Corresponding author: (e-mail:
[email protected])
REFERENCES Infotech News (1995) SGM Quarterly 22, 150. Knight, P. (1995) Microbiology Resources on the Internet. ASM News 61, 397–400. Pallen, M. (1997) Microbial genomics. Trends in Microbiology 11, 433. Rudd, K.E. (1996) Escherichia coli K-12 on the Internet. Trends in Genetics 12, 156–157. G.T. acknowledges a BBSRC CASE studentship.
© 1998 The Society for Applied Microbiology, Letters in Applied Microbiology 27, 121–123
