Prevalence of the Genes Associated with Biofilm and Toxins Synthesis amongst the Clinical Strains.

is one of the most commonly isolated bacteria from clinical specimens, with an increasing isolation frequency in nosocomial outbreaks. The hypothesis tested was whether carbapenem-resistant strains display an altered carriage of the virulence factor genes, depending on the type of carbapenem resistance. The aim of the study was to investigate, by PCR, the frequency of 10 chosen virulence factors genes (, , , , , , , , and ) and the genotype distribution in 107 non-duplicated carbapenem-resistant isolates. genes involved in phenazine dyes and exoenzyme T synthesis were noted with the highest frequency (100%). Fimbriae-encoding genes were detected with the lowest incidence: 15.9% and 4.7% for pilin A and B, respectively. The differences observed between the gene prevalence amongst the carbapenemase-positive and the carbapenemase-negative strains and the gene prevalence amongst the strains of different origins were statistically significant. Virulence genes' prevalence and the genotype distribution vary amongst strains resistant to carbapenems, especially in terms of their carbapenemase synthesis ability and the strain origin.