Ziba Dehghani - BioMedical Sciences Department, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran. Departmant of Biochemistry, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran
Ali-Reza Ahmadi - Corresponding Author BioMedical Sciences Department, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran
Naeimeh Najafi - BioMedical Sciences Department, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran
Behzad Lamerad - Departmant of Biochemistry, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran

Introduction: Enterococcus faecalis is a normal commensally in the human and animal gastrointestinal tract but it has became increasingly recognized as one of the leading cause of nosocomial infections. Urinary tract infections (UTI) are the most frequent, although more serious infections, such asbacteremia, endocarditic and neonatal infections also occur. E. faecalis endocarditic antigen (efaA) has been identified as one of the principal virulence factors associated with urinary tract infection. Aim: To detect the presence of putative E. faecalis virulence factor, efaA in urinary tract infectionusing polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification for phylogenetic analysis. The efaA sequence used to create the dendrogram and genetic diversity. Materials and Methods: Samples were obtained from 70 women patients (20-70 years) undergoing urinary tract infection 10% of samples were positive for E. faecalis. DNA was extracted from the samples and analyzed for the endocarditic virulence factor efaA using specific primers for efaA geneand PCR. Using Clustal W and MEGA4 software, the gained subsequence was alignment with the gene subsequence existing in gene bank and its gene diversity were studied.Results: Among the positive E. faecalis samples, efaA gene was identified in all of samples. Also rsults of this study indicated diversity between gene efaA in Iranian samples and also with other reports from around the world. Conclusion: Our findings indicate that efaA, a potent E. faecalis virulence gene can be found in E. faecalis strains detected in urinary tract infection similar to reports for 'medical' strains. Genetic diversity among UTI-causing genes can be difficult to work for universal vaccine. Protected areas can be use to design a vaccine against urinary tract infection

Enterococcus faecalis, endocarditic antigen, efaA, urinary tract infection, PCR