IDENTIFICATION OF METHICILLIN RESISTANT STAPHYLOCOCCUS AUREUS USING TOUCHDOWN PCR AND PHENOTYPIC METHODS FROM PATIENTS AND HOSPITALS ENVIRONMENTS IN DIFFERENT IRAQI CITIES

The study was aimed to evaluate the prevalence of MRSA in some Iraqi hospitals and determine the most powerful methods for identification of MRSA, in order to achieve the, 278 samples were collected from different hospitals in Iraq in various intervals, 204 out of 287 were identified as Staphylococcus aureus by conventional cultural methods and microscopic characteristics and 177 isolates are identified as MRSA by using HiCrome MeReSa Agar Base medium, but 154 of 177 (87%) isolates are methicillin resistance in sensitivity test. MRSA isolates were highly resistant to β-lactam antibiotics and considered multidrug resistant (MDR) in percent of (94.9%). Touchdown PCR used to identify the isolates, 97.05% were identified as Staphylococcus aureus, while 80.88% as MRSA.

Interlaboratory comparison of fig (Ficus carica L.) microsatellite genotyping data and determination of reference alleles

<p>Microsatellites have been identified as the marker of choice in plant genotyping projects. However, due to length discrepancies obtained between different laboratories for the same allele, interlaboratory comparison of fingerprinting results is often a difficult task. The objectives of this study were to compare genotyping results of two laboratories, to evaluate genetic parameters of microsatellite markers and to determine reference allele sizes for fig cultivars from the Istrian peninsula.</p><p>Genotyping results of ninety fig (<em>Ficus carica</em> L.) accessions were comparable between the laboratories despite differences observed when comparing electropherograms of different capillary electrophoresis systems. Differences in lengths of the same alleles were detected due to different PCR methods and laboratory equipment, but the distances between alleles of the same locus were preserved. However, locus FSYC01 exhibited one allele dropout which led to misidentification of 28 heterozygotes as homozygote individuals suggesting this locus as unreliable. Allele dropout was assigned to the tail PCR technology or to a touchdown PCR protocol.</p><p>Genotypes of twenty-four reference cultivars from the Istrian peninsula were confirmed by both laboratories. These results will contribute to the usage of markers with greater reliability, discrimination power and consequently, to more reliable standardization with other fig genotyping projects.</p>