Detection of beta-glucuronidase in lactose-fermenting members of the family Enterobacteriaceae and its presence in bacterial urine cultures

Abstract

Four hundred strains of lactose-fermenting Enterobacteriaceae were tested for hydrolysis ofp-nitropheny1-j8-D-glucopyranosiduronic acid, the chromogenic enzyme substrate of I-glucuronidase. Escherichia coli was found to be homogeneous with respect to I-glucuronidase: more than 94% of the examined E. coli strains were positive, whereas none of the other lactose-fermenting strains possessed ,-glucuronidase activity. The qualitative 13-glucuronidase test, as rapid and simple as the o-nitropheny1- ,-D-galactopyranosidase test, proved to be of diagnostic value, especially in the identification of E. coli in primary urine cultures. No significant differences were observed in the results of experiments in which either substrate-impregnated disks prepared in the laboratory or commercially available tablets were used.

Evaluation of a commercial β‐glucuronidase test for the rapid and economical identification ofEscherichia coli

“…Nevertheless, we have detected some false positive results, which affect the specificity of the test. The high frequency (more than 95%) of /3-GUR positive E. coli strains found in this study agrees with other previously published results (Kilian & Biillow 1976;Kilian & Bullow 1979;Edberg & Trepeta 1983;Hansen & Yourassowsky 1984;Trepeta & Edberg 1984). It is important to note that the P-GUR test was positive after 4 h in more than 92% of our E. coli strains (522 out of 563).…”

“…Later, they developed a medium for direct identification of E. coli in urine cultures (Kilian & Bullow 1979). Since then other studies have proposed the value of this test in the clinical laboratory (Edberg & Trepeta 1983;Dibb & Bottolfsen 1984;Hansen & Yourassowsky 1984). The purpose of this work is to study the usefulness of a commercial 8-GUR test in screening for E. coli.…”

Methods for Escherichia coli identification in food, water and clinical samples based on beta‐glucuronidase detection

“…coli (Buehler et al 1951), its relative specificity for identifying this organism was not apparent until Bulow (1976, 1979) surveyed the Enterobacteriaceae and the Vibrionaceae and reported that G U D activity was mostly limited to E. colz (9497%) and to a lesser degree Shzgella spp. With the exception of one study showing that 34% of E. coli strains of human faecal origin were GUD-negative (Chang et al 1989), numerous studies have since confirmed GUD-positive reactions in the middle to upper 90% range for E. coli isolated from a variety of sources (Feng and Hartman 1982;Edberg and Trepeta 1983;Hansen and Yourassowsky 1984;Pirrez et al 1986;Restaino et al 1990;Rice et al 1990;Kampfer et al 1991 ;Manafi and Rotter Correspondence to : D r E. W . Frampton 1991; Sarhan and Foster 1991).…”

A rapid fluorogenic method for the detection ofEscherichia coliby the production of β‐glucuronidase

“…Although a recent report by Chang et al. (1989) showed that 34% of E. coli strains of human faecal origin were glucuronidase-negative, the majority of reports have shown that 9 4 9 7 % of human and environmental E. coli strains produce 8-glucuronidase (Feng & Hartman 1982;Edberg & Trepeta 1983;Hansen & Yourassowsky 1984;Van Wart & Moberg 1984;Perez et PI. 1986).…”