Genomic diversity of non-diarrheagenic fecal Escherichia coli from children in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia and their relatedness to diarrheagenic E. coli

Escherichia coli is a frequent member of the healthy human gastrointestinal microbiota, as well as an important human pathogen. Previous studies have focused on the genomic diversity of the pathogenic E. coli and much remains unknown about the non-diarrheagenic E. coli residing in the human gut, particularly among young children in low and middle income countries. Also, gaining additional insight into non-diarrheagenic E. coli is important for understanding gut health as non-diarrheagenic E. coli can prevent infection by diarrheagenic bacteria. In this study we examine the genomic diversity of non-diarrheagenic fecal E. coli from male and female children with or without diarrhea from countries in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia as part of the Global Enteric Multicenter Study (GEMS). We find that these E. coli exhibit considerable genetic diversity as they were identified in all E. coli phylogroups and an Escherichia cryptic clade. Although these fecal E. coli lack the characteristic virulence factors of diarrheagenic E. coli pathotypes, many exhibit remarkable genomic similarity to previously described diarrheagenic isolates with differences attributed to mobile elements. This raises an important question of whether these non-diarrheagenic fecal E. coli may have at one time possessed the mobile element-encoded virulence factors of diarrheagenic pathotypes or may have the potential to acquire these virulence factors.