prevalence and evaluation of toxin genes among uropathogenic escherichia coli clinical isolates by duplex pcr

background:  one of the most common infections in human is urinary tract infection  (uti)  and  uropathogenic   escherichia  coli   is  one  of  its  major causative agents . uti is extremely common among young women. children under age 5 are also highly at risk. considering the prevalence of this disease, it is necessary  to design  an appropriate  diagnostic  method  for its effective diagnosis.  the aim of present  study was to identify  the prevalence  of two virulence genes ( sat and vat ) among uropathogenic e. coli isolates. methods: urine samples were taken from 350 patients with urinary tract infection. the samples were cultured on emb agar and blood agar. the suspected e. coli colonies were isolated and confirmed by biochemical tests. the genomic dna was extracted from 297 isolated e. coli and target genes were amplified  by pcr. the amplicons  were sequenced  and analyzed  with clustalw  software.  moreover,  data analysis  was performed  by using spss software.   subsequently,   duplex   pcr   was   optimized   for   simultaneous detection of two genes. results: the prevalence of sat and vat genes were 75 (n: 225) and 36 (n: 106)percent,  respectively.  in addition,  less  than  4%  (n: 11)  of  clinical  isolates comprised two genes. conclusion: according to the conducted research, molecular identification of uropathogenic e .coli strains according to detection of sat gene is potentially an appropriate method and could be noted for diagnosis.