S. U. Anusha, S. K. Sundar and S. Rajan
UPEC is responsible for morethan 90% of UTI. Conventional and molecular characterizations are essential for epidemiological surveillance as well as proper management of diseases. Virulence factors, antibiotic susceptibility, RAPD pattern, plasmid profile of the E. coli isolated from UTI cases were studied using standard methods. Antibiotic susceptibility pattern of 127 uropathogenic E. coli revealed 11 specific resistance patterns with 96.7% resistance to erythromycin and cefpodoxime. Twenty three strains were resistance to all antibiotics tested and revealed the presence of virulent genes like fimH, hly and kps. All the strains showed six clustered RAPD pattern. All the tested isolates harboured plasmid. UPEC also showed the presence of tem, oxa, shv and ctxm genes. Antibiotic resistances were due to plasmid which is evidence in plasmid curing study. This study concludes the relationship between plasmid profile, virulence, antibiotic resistance and relatedness of organisms in a community
