Genotypic analysis of Escherichia coli strains that cause urosepsis in the Aegean region.

BACKGROUND/AIM The aim of this study was to characterize strains genotypically, to determine their phylogenetic relationships, to investigate the presence of the papG gene, and to compare their antibiotic susceptibility test results. MATERIALS AND METHODS Seventy pathogenic E. coli strains were isolated from both urine and blood cultures of patients with the preliminary diagnosis of urosepsis who were referred to the Ege University Faculty of Medicine, Bacteriology Laboratory of Medical Microbiology Department in İzmir. All of these strains were examined for the papG gene and phylogenetic groups with the multiplex polymerase chain reaction technique. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and multilocus sequence typing (MLST) were used for epidemiologic analysis. RESULTS Phylogenetically, it was found that 16 belonged to group B2, 31 belonged to group D, 15 belonged to group A, and 7 belonged to group B1. One strain was not identified as belonging to a group. papG genes were found in 26 of 70 E. coli strains. Thirty urosepsis pathogenic E. coli strains were analyzed with MLST. Twenty-two strains were identified as new STs. CONCLUSION These findings are extremely important for Turkey and these new 22 strains should be investigated in more detail because they are new and have the potential to lead to infections.