Repetitive-element PCR (rep-PCR) fingerprinting is a promising molecular typing tool for Escherichia coli, including for discriminating between pathogenic and nonpathogenic clones, but is plagued by irreproducibility. Using the ERIC2 and BOXA1R primers and 15 E. coli strains from the ECOR reference collection (three from each phylogenetic group, as defined by multilocus enzyme electrophoresis [...

The outbreak of waterborne disease cholera has been associated with rainfall and flooding events by contamination of potable water with environmental Vibrio cholerae. The continuation of the epidemic in a region, however, is often due to secondary transmission of the initial outbreak strain through human waste. This paper reports, on the contrary, a rapid shift of genotype from one V. cholerae ...