Isolation and identification of Citrobacter spp from urinary tract infection patients

Citrobacter freundii is a Gram-negative bacterium belonging to the Enterobacteriaceae family. This bacterium is a facultative anaerobe. It can survive in both aerobic and anaerobic conditions. Citrobacter freundii is part of the normal gut microbiota in humans, but can become opportunistic, entering the urinary tract and causing infections under certain conditions. The aim of this study is to isolate and identify Citrobacter spp species from urine cultures of patients with urinary tract infection and to determine their antibiotic susceptibility. In this study, urine samples were taken from 100 participants classified according to gender (male/female), age groups (18-25/ 26-33/ 34-41) and whether the patients are diabetic or not. The patients were also divided into two groups: those with and without kidney stones. The total number of bacteria according to gender and age group was determined using descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) for both groups. The molecular identification of Citrobacter freundii was carried out using DNA extraction, ERIC-PCR analysis, 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis and urease gene detection. It was found that the variable "age" had a significant effect on the total number of bacteria (p < 0.015). This result shows that age has an effect on the total number of bacteria regardless of gender. It was found that the "gender * age" interaction (p <0.097) did not have a statistically significant effect on the total number of bacteria as it was greater than the traditional significance level of 0.05. This implies that the combined effect of gender and age does not significantly affect bacterial counts beyond their individual effects. According to the similarity matrices with scale values ranging from 0-1. Isolates numbered C1, C2, C3, C7, C8, C12, C14, C16 and C20 with a value of 1 were found to be completely similar to themselves. Additionally, it was determined that the isolates C4, C5, C6 and C8, which had scores between 0-1, also showed similar relationships arising from different similarity scores in isolates C1, C2, C3, C4, C5 and C6. Keywords: Salmmonella spp, Virülans faktör, Antibiyotik Direnci, PCR