Abstract Background: Escherichia coli is the most common organism found in urinary tract infections (UTIs). A cutting-edge molecular genomic-based method, the enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus polymerase chain reaction (ERIC-PCR), was employed to identify and detect different E. coli strains. Objectives: In this investigation, we aim to evaluate the association of E. coli as a main causative agent of UTIs and determine the distribution of ERIC sequences in urine samples. Materials and Methods: E. coli were isolated and cultured using standard microbiological procedures. The DNA from these E. coli bacteria was extracted and subjected to 16S rRNA gene confirmation via PCR and ERIC-PCR for molecular genotyping. The resulting ERIC-PCR products were separated via 2% gel electrophoresis, and the resulting gel electrophoresis banding patterns were employed to generate dendrograms with GelJ software. Results: The results showed that out of 100 patients’ urine samples, 31% were positive for E. coli . The fingerprint patterns revealed bands ranging from 100 to 5000 bp in size. The most frequent band was 1350 bp, which was found in 17 isolates, while the least frequent was 150 bp, which was observed in two isolates. Six clusters (E1–E6) were identified with 70% similarity among them. Conclusions: UPEC strains were genetically classified using ERIC-PCR technology, showing promising genotype differentiation capabilities. Unique colonies within E. coli clones highlighted diversity in the tested clinical samples, which is expected to enhance public health and contribute to the molecular epidemiology of UPEC E. coli .
Al-Zubaidy et al. (Thu,) studied this question.