RESEARCH ARTICLE
Diversity of Tetracycline Resistant Genes in Escherichia coli from Human and Environmental Sources
Saif Al-Bahry1, *, Nawal Al-Sharji2, Mahmoud Yaish1, Salma Al-Musharafi3, Ibrahim Mahmoud4
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2016Volume: 10
Issue: Suppl-2, M2
First Page: 289
Last Page: 300
Publisher ID: TOBIOTJ-10-289
DOI: 10.2174/1874070701610010289
Article History:
Received Date: 28/1/2016Revision Received Date: 08/4/2016
Acceptance Date: 31/5/2016
Electronic publication date: 11/11/2016
Collection year: 2016
open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 International Public License (CC BY-NC 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/legalcode), which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
Worldwide tetracycline resistance (Tcr) is increasing dramatically, causing serious environmental and health problems. A total of 201 samples were collected from chicken intestine, human feces and treated sewage effluent (TSE). One hundred and eighteen Escherichia coli strains were isolated and identified using MALDI-Biotyper. Single and multiplex PCR were used to screen isolates for 14 tet genes, among which only 7 tet genes (A, B, C, M, Q, W, 32) were found. Among the resistant isolates, tet A was the most frequent gene, followed by tet B and tet 32 while the rest of tet determinants occurred at a lower frequency. Many strains contained multiple Tcr determinants. Some strains contained 4 tet gene-combination, tet (A/B/C/32) and tet (A/B/M/32). The 4 tet gene combination is reported for the first time in this region. The Tcr isolates showed a high variation of tet gene combination. The increase in the resistance of tetracycline with high diversification is an indication of antibiotics overuse. Strict enforcement of regulation is urgently needed to control and prevent the spread of tetracycline resistant strains which are detrimental to the environment.