title: Prevalence of bacteriocin activities and bacteriocin-encoding genes in enterococcal clinical isolates in Iran.
abstract: The aim of the project was to isolate and characterize bacteriocin-producing enterococci, as well as determine the prevalence of enterocin structural genes in 187 enterococcal clinical isolates from the northwest of Iran. The isolates were screened for antibacterial activity against 15 different indicator strains. The proteinaceous nature of the antimicrobial substances was confirmed by sensitivity to proteinase K; their stability to heat treatment was tested at 60 °C and 100 °C for 20 and 10 min, respectively. The PCR method was applied to detect previously identified enterocin genes. Our results showed that 38 (20.3%) of the enterococcal isolates were considered to be potential bacteriocinogenic strains. Furthermore, genes encoding diverse bacteriocin are highly distributed among clinical enterococci, and the strains with multi-bacteriocin genes displayed high antimicrobial activity. Enterocin A, enterolysin A, and enterocin L50A/B were the most abundant structural genes detected in bacteriocinogenic strains. This work is the first survey on the prevalence of bacteriocin genes among clinical enterococci in Iran that has isolated a strain with high antimicrobial activity and sensitivity to clinically relevant antibiotics.
authors.affiliation: Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
authors.forename: Maryam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hassan
authors.forename: Dzung B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Diep
authors.forename: Yousef
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Javadzadeh
authors.forename: Siavash
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dastmalchi
authors.forename: Ingolf F
authors.initials: IF
authors.lastname: Nes
authors.forename: Yaeghob
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sharifi
authors.forename: Saber
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yari
authors.forename: Safar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Farajnia
authors.forename: Farzaneh
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lotfipour
mesh_terms: D000890:Anti-Infective Agents / Q000378:metabolism*; D001430:Bacteriocins / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D016983:Enterococcus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D000890:Anti-Infective Agents; D001430:Bacteriocins