| Abstract | | The aim of the presented study was to estimate the prevalence, distribution and associations of different pathogenicity islands (PAI I536 to PAI IV536, PAI IJ96, PAI IIJ96, PAI ICFT073 and PAI IICFT073), iron uptake systems (genes iutA, iucD, iroN, iroCD, fyuA, irp2, iha, ireA, and hbp) and plasmids among extraintestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli (ExPEC) strains isolated from Slovenian patients. Twenty-nine ExPEC isolates obtained from the Institute of Microbiology and Immunology, Medical Faculty, University of Ljubljana were investigated for the presence of different pathogenicity islands and iron uptake systems with PCR, the plasmid content of the investigated strains was determined by molecular biology techniques. The significance of the found associations of the studied PAIs and iron uptake systems was analyzed with the Fisher's exact test. PAI IV536 was found in 19, PAI II CFT073 in 6, PAI ICFT073 in 4, and PAI IIJ96 in one of the studied isolates. PAI I536, PAI II536, PAI III536 and PAI IJ96 were not detected in any studied isolate. In 19 of the studied isolates plasmids were detected. The irp2 was found in 20, fyuA in 19, iucD and iutA in 12, iha in 9, iroN in 8, iroCD in 7, ireA in 7 and hbp in 4 of studied isolates. PAI IV536 was statistically significantly associated with the yersiniabactin siderophore system and PAI ICFT073 was statistically significantly associated with the aerobactin siderophore system as well as Iha. To our knowledge this is the first report on PAIs and iron uptake systems among Slovenian ExPEC isolates, as well as a first report on PAIs, iron uptake systems and plasmids among isolates from skin and soft tissue infections.
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