Table 3.

Association between mucosa-associated E. coli isolates from the probiotic, control, or shared group and the occurrence of VAGs^a

Gene(s) (function/location)	Mucosa-associated E. coli isolated from:									P valuee
	Probiotic-only groupb			Control-only groupc			Shared groupd
	No. neg.	No. pos.	% pos.	No. neg.	No. pos.	% pos.	No. neg.	No. pos.	% pos.
tsh (adhesin/plasmid)	84	21	20.0	104	38	26.8	253	4	1.6	0.017
mat (adhesin)	22	83	79.0	6	136	95.8	102	155	60.3	0.001
focG (adhesin)	104	1	1.0	124	18	12.7	257	0	0.0	0.002
papC (adhesin)	105	0	0.0	131	11	7.7	257	0	0.0	0.037
ColV genes: cvi, cva (plasmid)	89	16	15.2	103	39	27.5	233	24	9.3	0.048
ompT (outer membrane protein)	80	25	23.8	91	51	35.9	233	24	9.3	0.003
cvaC (bacteriocin/plasmid)	92	13	12.4	90	52	36.6	227	30	11.7	0.004
iroN (iron acquisition/plasmid)	73	32	30.5	59	83	58.5	220	37	14.4	0.000
etsB (ABC transporter)	72	33	31.4	89	53	37.3	226	31	12.1	0.003
etsC (ABC transporter)	72	33	31.4	89	53	37.3	226	31	12.1	0.003
hlyF (toxin)	87	18	17.1	86	56	39.4	233	24	9.3	0.001

^aneg., negative; pos., positive.

^bProbiotic only; n = 105.

^cControl only; n = 142.

^dShared group; n = 257.

^eA total of 69 VAGs were screened; here, only significant results are listed (permutation test).