| dc.description.abstract | Water plays a critical role on Earth, and its significance is particularly evident in relation
to human beings. The present study aimed to identification of Escherichia coli and
detection of their antibiotic resistant genes in drinking water sources of five different
regions Gampaha district, Sri Lanka. Five resources of randomly collect drinking water
samples (n = 50) from every 10 samples from five different regions were used for analysis.
The pathogenic microorganisms were isolated via membrane filtration technique (0.45
µm) and identified via conventional standard biochemical keys including Indole, Citrate,
MRVP, TSI, Motility and Chromogenic culture and Gram stain. The DNA extraction
was performed via column-based method. The disk diffusion method was performed to
access the antibiotic sensitivity of the isolated Escherichia coli following CLSI guidelines
via Ampicillin, Gentamicin and Tetracycline antibiotics (10 mg). From total sample 18%
were positive with Escherichia coli in unprotected well, protected well and tap line samples.
All nine samples exhibit resistance to Ampicillin (< 13 mm), sensitive to the Gentamicin
(> 15 mm) and resistant to Tetracycline (< 11 mm). Molecular determination, 2% agarose
gel image, confirmed the presence of E. coli DNA as evidenced by the presence 400
base pairs (bp) band size and UidA gene found in one sample confirmed the presence of
different strains of isolated E. coli. The specific antibiotic resistant genes were analyzed
and all three samples were negative for the tet (a), tet (C), tet (m) and blaTEM antibiotic
resistant genes which confirms that isolated E. coli were not resistant for the Tetracycline
and Ampicillin due to mentioned genes. | en_US |
