%0 Journal Article %A Ghorbanalizadgan, Mahdi %A Bakhshi, Bita %A Kazemnejad Lili, Anoshirvan %A Najar-Peerayeh, Shahin %A Nikmanesh, Bahram %T A Molecular Survey of Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter Coli Virulence and Diversity %J Iranian Biomedical Journal %V 18 %N 3 %U http://ibj.pasteur.ac.ir/article-1-1113-en.html %R 10.6091/ibj.13592.2014 %D 2014 %K Campylobacter jejuni, Campylobacter coli, Ddiarrhea, Virulence factors, %X Background: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of virulence-associated genes and enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus PCR (ERIC-PCR) analysis of Campylobacter spp. isolated from children with diarrhea in Iran. Methods: A total of 200 stool specimens were obtained from children under 5 years during July 2012 to July 2013. Detection of C. jejuni and C. coli was performed by standard biochemical and molecular methods. The presence of virulence-associated genes and genetic diversity of isolates was examined using PCR and ERIC-PCR analyses. Results: A total of 12 (6%) Campylobacter spp. were isolated from patients including 10 (4.5%) C. jejuni and 2 (1.5%) C.coli. The flaA, cadF and ciaB genes were present in 100% of isolates, while no plasmid of virB11 gene was present in their genome. The prevalence of invasion-associated marker was 100% among C. coli and was not detected in C. jejuni isolates. The distribution of both pldA and the genes associated with cytolethal distending toxin (CDT) was 58.3% in C. jejuni isolates. Seven distinct ERIC-PCR profiles were distinguished in three clusters using ERIC-PCR analysis. Genotyping analysis showed a relative correlation with geographic location of patients and virulence gene content of isolates. Conclusion: To our knowledge, this is the first molecular survey of Campylobacter spp. in Iran concerning genotyping and virulence gene content of both C. jejuni and C. coli. ERIC-PCR revealed appropriate discriminatory power for clustering C. jejuni isolates with identical virulence gene content. However, more studies are needed to clearly understand the pathogenesis properties of specific genotypes. %> http://ibj.pasteur.ac.ir/article-1-1113-en.pdf %P 158-164 %& 158 %! Molecular Survey of Campylobacter spp. %9 Full Length/Original Article %L A-10-1-501 %+ %G eng %@ 1028-852X %[ 2014