A Comparison between the Molecular Identity of Mycoplasma Hominis in Urine Samples of Patients with Urinary Tract Infections and Similar Strains Available in GenBank

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Mycoplasmal infections are one of the most important urinary infections. Various studies have applied culture studies and biochemistry to separate the bacteria from the urinary tract. However, it should be noted that molecular and phylogenetic analyses are based on epidemiologic evaluations. The purpose of this study was to determine the molecular identity of Mycoplasma hominis, separated from the urine samples of patients with urinary tract infections in Kerman, Iran and compare the sequences with other strains in GenBank. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, 5 ml mid-stream urine samples of 50 patients with urinary tract infections were collected. After the specialists confirmed the diagnosis of urinary tract infections in patients via paraclinical tests, segments of 16S rRNA gene were amplified, using specific primers of Mycoplasma hominis via polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique. After purifying the PCR product, the sequences of bacterial strains were determined. Then, the sequences were aligned and the strains were compared with each other and other strains available in GenBank, using BioEdit software. FINDINGS: Three Mycoplasma hominis strains were separated in this study. The alignment of sequences and comparison with strains available in GenBank did not indicate a significant difference between the strains. Based on phylogenetic analyses in this study and the phylogenetic tree, one of the strains (H6) was highly similar to the strains of GenBank and belonged to the same family. On the other hand, two strains (H11 and H15) were of a different lineage and were completely different from other strains in the present study and those recorded in GenBank. CONCLUSION: In this study, after applying the PCR technique and bacterial separation, the sequences were compared with those in GenBank. All three strains were Mycoplasma hominis, based on 16S rRNA gene sequence.