DETERMINATION OF K1 AND K2 CAPSULAR SEROTYPES FOR KLEBSIELLA PNEUMONIAE USING MAGA AND K2A GENES AS SPECIFIC MOLECULAR DIAGNOSIS TOOLS
This study aimed to molecular diagnosis of Klebsiella pneumoniae by using polymerase chain reaction. A total of 325 samples were collected from different clinical and environmental sources. Forty isolates (12.3 %) were isolated and identified as K. pneumoniae (36 clinical and 4 environmental), among these, 23 isolates (57.5 %) with K1 capsular serotype, 11 isolates (27.5 %) with K2 serotype and 6 isolates (15 %) with Non-K1/K2 serotype. PCR was performed with the primer that target the 16S rRNA, Result showed that all the isolate gave a clear band with a molecular weight 130 bp in size. When using the primer specific for the capsule cluster gene magA and k2A, the result revealed that 23 of the isolate which belong to K1 serotype gave a band of 1283 bp in size and 11 of the isolate belong to K2 serotype gave a band of 543 bp in size. These results suggest that magA and k2A genotype might be a useful marker to identify K1 and K2 serotypes of K. pneumoniae and these serotypes have been more prevalent than those that were neither K1 nor K2 (Non-K1/K2) in Iraq