Genetic relationship assessment among staphylococcus aureus isolates in Kurdistan region-Iraq using Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLP)‎ markers

Abstract EN

Background AFLP-PCR is a highly sensitive and reproducible tool used in molecular biology to detect DNA polymorphisms and had become widely used for the identification of genetic variation and phylogentic studies of many organisms including strains of Pathogenic bacteria.

Staphylococcus aureus is one of the most important pathogens causing nosocomial and community acquired infection.

Typing of St.

aureus strains is necessary for proper epidemiological investigation of both sources and modes of the spread of different strains and subsequently, to design appropriate prevention and control measures.

Aim The use of AFLP markers to evaluate the phylogenetic diversity and genetic distance among isolates collected from different sites of infection in different geographical places in Kurdistan Region-Iraq.

Methods Eight isolates were collected from three major hospitals in Kurdistan region in Iraq including ( Dr.

Khalid General Hospital in Koya city, Teaching Hospital in Erbil city and Azadi General Hospital in Duhok city) these isolates were isolated from Urine, skin and burn infections.

These isolates were subjected to AFLP-PCR markers using different combination of selective primers PstI/True91.

Results The values of genetic distance among eight isolates ranged from (1.289 to 0.320).

It was clear that the lowest genetic distance (0.5025) was found between isolates number 7 and 8 which were isolated from urine and burn infections in Erbil respectively, whereas the highest genetic distance (1.5090) was found between isolates number 5 and 7 representing burn sample from Duhok and urine sample from Erbil respectively.

Phylogenetic diversity analysis among different S.

aureus isolates.

Indicated that all eight isolates were classified completely into four major genetic groups named as Sa-1, Sa-2, Sa-3 and Sa-4.

The first group included sub-division number 1, 5 and 3.

The second group included sub-division number 2 and 6.

The third group included sub-divisions number 7 and 8.

The fourth group included sub-division number 4.

Conclusions AFLP banding pattern revealed a high degree of DNA polymorphisms among the selected isolates which could clearly be noticed.

The high polymorphism was reflected in a high genetic variation among the geographically isolated strains of St aureus