{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,31]],"date-time":"2026-10-31T05:32:23Z","timestamp":1793424743778,"version":"4.5.0"},"reference-count":31,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,15]],"date-time":"2026-06-15T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1781481600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100010166","name":"Xiamen Municipal Bureau of Science and Technology","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["3502Z20227297, 3502Z20214ZD1232"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["3502Z20227297, 3502Z20214ZD1232"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100010166","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100005270","name":"Fujian Provincial Department of Science and Technology","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["2026J0011734"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2026J0011734"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100005270","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol."],"abstract":"\n Background<\/jats:title>\n \n Escherichia coli (E. coli)<\/jats:italic>\n is a leading cause of life-threatening neonatal invasive infections via vertical transmission. However, the bacterial molecular features that distinguish invasive infection from asymptomatic colonization following vertical transmission remain unclear in genomically confirmed mother-neonate pairs.\n <\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Methods<\/jats:title>\n \n A single-center retrospective case-control study enrolled 43 mother-neonate pairs with genome sequencing-confirmed clonal\n E. coli<\/jats:italic>\n vertical transmission (average nucleotide identity, ANI \u226599.99%) between January 2020 and June 2025. Pairs were stratified into an invasive infection group (n = 27) and a colonization group (n = 16) based on neonatal clinical outcomes. Genomic characterization, including multilocus sequence typing (MLST), serotyping, and virulence gene profiling, was performed on maternal\n E. coli<\/jats:italic>\n isolates. The Boruta algorithm was used for feature selection, and a Bayesian logistic regression model was constructed to identify independent predictors of invasive infection.\n <\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Results<\/jats:title>\n \n No significant differences were observed in baseline clinical characteristics between the two groups. ST95 was exclusively detected in the invasive infection group (29.6% vs. 0%,\n P<\/jats:italic>\n \u00a0=\u00a00.018). The virulence genes\n neuA<\/jats:italic>\n (63% vs. 13%),\n neuS<\/jats:italic>\n (59% vs. 13%),\n iutA<\/jats:italic>\n (78% vs. 38%), and\n kpsMT<\/jats:italic>\n II (93% vs. 63%) were significantly more prevalent in the invasive infection group (all raw\n P<\/jats:italic>\n \u00a0&lt;\u00a00.05). Bayesian modeling identified four independent predictors: ST95 [odds ratio (OR) = 6.05, 90% credible interval (CrI): 0.82\u201366.7, posterior probability P(OR&gt;1) = 0.85],\n neuA<\/jats:italic>\n (OR\u00a0=\u00a04.95, 90%CrI: 1.65\u201316.44,\n P<\/jats:italic>\n (OR&gt;1) = 0.96),\n kpsMT<\/jats:italic>\n II (OR\u00a0=\u00a04.48, 90%CrI: 1.35\u201316.44,\n P<\/jats:italic>\n (OR&gt;1) = 0.95), and\n iutA<\/jats:italic>\n (OR\u00a0=\u00a03.32, 90%CrI: 1.22\u20139.03,\n P<\/jats:italic>\n (OR&gt;1) = 0.93). Notably, all ST95 isolates (100%) co-harbored\n neuA<\/jats:italic>\n ,\n kpsMT<\/jats:italic>\n II, and\n iutA<\/jats:italic>\n , forming a distinct \u201cclonal virulence complex.\u201d The model exhibited good predictive performance (AUC\u00a0=\u00a00.847, 95%CI: 0.727\u20130.954), while the composite virulence burden score showed no intergroup difference (\n P<\/jats:italic>\n \u00a0=\u00a00.208).\n <\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n \n The ST95\n E. coli<\/jats:italic>\n clonal virulence complex (co-harboring\n neuA<\/jats:italic>\n \/kpsMT II and\n iutA<\/jats:italic>\n ) is strongly associated with invasive infection following vertical transmission. This signature represents a potential candidate marker for clinical risk stratification of neonates at high risk of\n E. coli<\/jats:italic>\n invasive infection, with potential implications for precision monitoring and intervention in perinatal care.\n <\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fcimb.2026.1855839","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,15]],"date-time":"2026-06-15T05:33:22Z","timestamp":1781501602000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Molecular determinants of Escherichia coli causing neonatal invasive infection following vertical transmission"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"16","author":[{"given":"Liang","family":"Gao","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, Women and Children\u2019s Hospital, School of Medicine, Xiamen University","place":["Xiamen, Fujian, China"]},{"name":"Xiamen Key Laboratory of Perinatal-Neonatal Infection","place":["Xiamen, Fujian, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jia yin","family":"Wu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Clinical Laboratory, Women and Children\u2019s Hospital, School of Medicine, Xiamen University","place":["Xiamen, Fujian, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xue rong","family":"Huang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, Women and Children\u2019s Hospital, School of Medicine, Xiamen University","place":["Xiamen, Fujian, China"]},{"name":"Xiamen Key Laboratory of Perinatal-Neonatal Infection","place":["Xiamen, Fujian, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xue yan","family":"Lin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Obstetrics, Women and Children\u2019s Hospital, School of Medicine, Xiamen University","place":["Xiamen, Fujian, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Dan tong","family":"Lin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, Women and Children\u2019s Hospital, School of Medicine, Xiamen University","place":["Xiamen, Fujian, China"]},{"name":"Xiamen Key Laboratory of Perinatal-Neonatal Infection","place":["Xiamen, Fujian, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yao","family":"Zhu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, Women and Children\u2019s Hospital, School of Medicine, Xiamen University","place":["Xiamen, Fujian, China"]},{"name":"Xiamen Key Laboratory of Perinatal-Neonatal Infection","place":["Xiamen, Fujian, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xin zhu","family":"Lin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, Women and Children\u2019s Hospital, School of Medicine, Xiamen University","place":["Xiamen, Fujian, China"]},{"name":"Xiamen Key Laboratory of Perinatal-Neonatal Infection","place":["Xiamen, Fujian, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ji dong","family":"Lai","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, Women and Children\u2019s Hospital, School of Medicine, Xiamen University","place":["Xiamen, Fujian, China"]},{"name":"Xiamen Key Laboratory of Perinatal-Neonatal Infection","place":["Xiamen, Fujian, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,15]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"2921","DOI":"10.1038\/s41467-025-57940-1","article-title":"Plasmid-driven strategies for clone success in Escherichia coli","volume":"16","author":"Arredondo-Alonso","year":"2025","journal-title":"Nat. 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