title: Antimicrobial resistance patterns and integron carriage of Escherichia coli isolates causing community-acquired infections in Turkey.
abstract: We aimed to observe antimicrobial resistance patterns and integron carriage of Escherichia coli isolates causing community-acquired infections. Two hundred sixty-eight E. coli strains were obtained from outpatients with various infections at different polyclinics at the 82nd Year of State Hospital in Rize, Turkey. Susceptibility to antimicrobials was tested using a disk diffusion method. The presence of integrons was examined using PCR with specific primers. Positive PCR results were confirmed by sequencing. A broth mating method was used for conjugation assays. Extragenic palindromic-PCR was performed using the oligonucleotide primer BOXA1R. Resistance frequency for ampicillin, trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole, and tetracycline was determined as 50.6%, 33.5%, and 36.8% respectively. No strains were resistant to amikacin. Seventy isolates were positive for the intI1 gene, of which 49 carried gene cassettes. Eleven isolates were positive for the intI2 gene, eight of which carried gene cassettes. Seven gene cassettes (dfrA1, dfrA5, dfrA7, dfrA17, aadA1, aadA5, and sat2) were predominantly harbored in integrons. We detected conjugative plasmids harboring integrons in two E. coli strains. Four strain clusters were yielded by BOX-PCR fingerprints showing that they were clonally related. No apparent relationship occurred among class 1 and 2 integron-carrying strains. We conclude that integrons are widespread in genetically variable E. coli strains and will continue to mediate dissemination of resistance genes in the community.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan University, Rize, Turkey.
authors.forename: Aysegul
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Copur-Cicek
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan University, Rize, Turkey.
authors.forename: Osman Birol
authors.initials: OB
authors.lastname: Ozgumus
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Faculty of Arts & Sciences, Artvin Coruh University, Artvin, Turkey.
authors.forename: Aysegul
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Saral
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Faculty of Arts & Sciences, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan University, Rize, Turkey.
authors.forename: Cemal
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sandalli
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D017714:Community-Acquired Infections / Q000382:microbiology*; D052978:Disk Diffusion Antimicrobial Tests; D024881:Drug Resistance, Bacterial; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D019426:Integrases / Q000235:genetics; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D014421:Turkey
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; C451959:InTI2 protein, E coli; D019426:Integrases
keywords: Antimicrobial; Community-acquired infections; Escherichia coli; Integrons; Resistance