Interactions with lectins and agglutination profiles of clinical, food, and environmental isolates of Listeria

On the basis of preliminary trials with 14 collection strains of Listeria, five lectins (Canavalia ensiformis, concanavalin A; Griffonia simplicifolia lectin I; Helix pomatia agglutinin; Ricinus communis agglutinin; and Triticum vulgaris wheat germ agglutinin) were selected to set up a microtiter agglutination assay. The lectin agglutination profiles of 174 clinical, food, and environmental strains of Listeria monocytogenes, Listeria innocua, and Listeria seeligeri were investigated. Data on the standard determination of the antigenic structure were available for clinical strains; nonclinical isolates were assigned to serogroup 1 or 4 with commercial antisera. The listeria-lectin interaction was related to serological type rather than species; in particular, the strains assigned to serogroup 1 or belonging to serovars 1/2a, 1/2b, 1/2c, 3a, 3b, and 7 were never agglutinated by G. simplicifolia lectin I. The five-lectin set proved to be capable of detecting differences between serologically identical isolates of L. monocytogenes. Of the 150 isolates of this species, 144 were distributed over 15 different lectin agglutination profiles and 6 autoagglutinated, the overall typeability being 96%. However, the profiles encountered among L. monocytogenes isolates were not randomly distributed. With strains assigned to serogroup 1 or belonging to serovars 1/2a, 1/2b, 1/2c, and 3b, the clinical isolates fell into only two of the eight patterns recorded overall; with strains of serogroup 4 and serovar 4b, food and environmental isolates were distributed over eight of the nine patterns found in total, while clinical isolates were distributed over five patterns. In a comparative study of 15 epidemiologically relevant isolates of L. monocytogenes from five distinct outbreaks, strains with identical phage types and/or DNA fingerprints displayed identical lectin profiles. The heterogeneity of agglutination profiles may form the basis of a new approach to L. monocytogenes typing.