The characteristic and relationship of Escherichia coli isolated from urine and stones in patients with calcium oxalate stones

Previous clinical studies have shown that Escherichia coli (E. coli) predominated in urine and stone culture from calcium oxalate (CaOx) stone disease. The characteristic and relationship between E. coli isolated from urine cultures (EUC) and stone cultures (ESC) are compared. 83 E. coli (33 EUC and 50 ESC, respectively) from 66 CaOx stone patients were recruited in the study. E. coli in urine and stones from those patients were assessed by antimicrobial susceptibility test, genotyping and phylogenetic grouping. Furthermore, whole genome sequencing and comparative genomic analysis in paired ESC and EUC isolated strains from eight patients were carried out. The E. coli strains from ESC and EUC were not only multidrug resistant (MDR), but also had the similar pattern of resistant genes. The dominant phylogenetic group was B2, which was found in 54.0% of the ESC samples and 69.7% of the EUC samples, respectively. The virulence genes of E. coli, which isolated from stones and urine in the same patients, were highly homologous and largely consistent. Meanwhile, these E. coli strains were located in the same clade originated from a common ancestor. ESC and EUC isolated from patients with CaOx stones had a high prevalence of phylogenetic groups B2. Bacterial strains isolated from urine and stones in the same patient had consistent antimicrobial susceptibility profiles, genotyping, phylogenetic groups, virulence and resistance genes, also with high sequence co-linearity and close relationships.