Typing of Acinetobacter Baumannii Strains isolated from Hospital Patients by Amplified Ribosomal DNA Restriction Analysis (ARDRA)

Afaf I. Shehata², A. A. Al-Aidan³, B. Al-Shahrani², N. A. Al-Harbi^1,2 and Sulamain Ali Alharbi²

¹Addiriyah Chair for Environmental Studies,College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, Riyadh 11451 Saudi Arabia.

²Department of Botany and Microbiology, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, Riyadh 11451 Saudi Arabia.

³Molecular Virology and Infectious Disease Laboratory, Research, Centre, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre Saudi Arabia.

ABSTRACT: Eighty-one clinical Acinetobacter baumannii isolates were included in this study collected from year 2001 to 2006. The strains were originally isolated from different clinical and environmental specimens by the Microbiology Laboratory of the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. They were preserved in tryptic soy broth (TSB) supplemented with 20% (vol/vol) glycerol. Pure isolates were stored at -80OC until used in the Research Centre, KFSH&RC. For ARDRA genomic typing, the 16S rRNA gene of each of the 81 Acinetobacter baumannii strains was amplified and restricted with the restriction enzymes Alu I, Mbo I and Msp I. Each enzyme generated 3-7 bands per strain, analyzed visually by comparing the differences in the banding patterns generated and grouped the isolates into Strain A to G, while isolates that are untypeable or undetermined were group into Strain H. ARDRA could not accurately distinguish the 81 different Acinetobacter baumannii strains using three restriction enzymes, indicating low discriminatory power for the method.

KEYWORDS: Acinetobacter Baumannii; Hospital patients; Amplified Ribosomal DNA

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