Molecular identification and detection of virulence genes among Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolated from different infectious origins

Background and Objectives: Pseudomonas aeruginosa possesses a variety of virulence factors that may contribute to its pathogenicity. The aim of this study was to rapid identification of clinical P. aeruginosa based on PCR amplification oprI and oprL. In order to find out any relation between special virulence factors and special manifestation of P. aeruginosa infections we detected virulence factors among these isolates by PCR. Ribotyping was used to evaluate the clonal relationship between strains with the same genetic patterns of the genes studied.Material and Methods: In this study, 268 isolates of P. aeruginosa were recovered from burn, wound and pulmonary tract infections. PCR of oprI, oprL, toxA, lasB, exoS and nan1 genes was performed. One hundred and four isolates were selected randomly to investigate clonal diversity of the isolates using ribotyping using SmaI.Results and Conclusions: All P. aeruginosa isolates in this study carried oprI, oprL and lasB genes. Difference between exoS prevalence in isolates from pulmonary tract and burn or wound isolates was statistically significant (P<0.05). Prevalence of nan1 and toxA gene was significantly higher in burn and pulmonary tract isolates, respectively. Ribotyping showed that Most of the isolates (87%) belonged to clone A and B.PCR of oprI, oprL and toxA genes is recommended for molecular identification of P. aeruginosa. Determination of different virulence genes of P. aeruginosa isolates suggests that they are associated with different levels of intrinsic virulence and pathogenicity. Ribotyping showed that strains with similar virulence genes don’t necessarily have similar ribotype patterns.