Identification of mazEF Toxin – Antitoxin system and biofilm formation in clinical isolates of MRSA isolated from Eastern India

• Main Authors: Sonia Jain, Manideepa SenGupta, Anuradha Sinha, Soma Sarkar
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Al Ameen Medical College 2016-01-01
• Series: Al Ameen Journal of Medical Sciences
• Subjects: Biofilm; MRSA; mazEF Toxin-Antitoxin Systems
• Online Access: http://ajms.alameenmedical.org/ArticlePDFs/10%20AJMS%20V9.N1.2016%20p%2053-57.pdf

Introduction: Interest on Toxin-Antitoxin (TA) systems has increased dramatically over recent years. It is ubiquitously present in many bacterial genomes including pathogens like MRSA. Several cellular functions of TA systems are proposed like programmed cell death, persister cell formation, biofilm formation etc. However, their exact role in cell physiology remains unclear. Due to the biofilm development the rate of morbidity and mortality of chronic MRSA infections are increasing day by day. Objectives: The aim of the study is to find any association between biofilm formation and mazEF toxin-antitoxin systems in clinical isolates of MRSA, isolated from tertiary care hospital, Kolkata. Materials and Methods: MRSA isolates were detected for biofilm formation by tube method and simultaneously the presence of mazEF TA gene in these biofilm forming isolates were evaluated. Results: It was found that 52.47 % MRSA isolates were potent biofilm producers by Tube method. The results indicated that 55.26 % of the biofilm forming isolates possessed mazEF gene. And 44% of the biofilm forming isolates did not possessed mazEF gene. Conclusions: The analysis recommended that TA genes are prevalent in clinical isolates of MRSA strains but no significant difference is found in the presence of mazEF TA system in the biofilm producer and non-biofilm producer isolates. Further to come into any conclusion reverse transcription studies are needed to be done in order to find out the exact amount of mazEF expression in all MRSA isolates.