Genetic study of <i>Intl1 </i>and <i>Intl2</i> resistance genes and multidrug resistance of <i>Proteus mirabilis</i> isolated from clinical isolates from patients in Diyala province, Iraq

Proteus mirabilis has become a prevalent opportunistic pathogenic agent in clinical infections globally. The objective of this study was to analyze and discover some of genes responsible for antibiotic resistance in clinical isolates of P. mirabilis that exhibit resistance to multiple drugs, including IntI1, IntI2 and to assess the relationship in the phylogenetic tree among these genes in Iraq, comparing to world-wide strains in National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI ). A total of 250 samples from different sources were isolated in some Diyala province hospitals from August 2023 to January 2024 to be identified for the presence of P. mirabilis by biochemical and genetics test. The study demonstrated that 75 isolates were P. mirabilis 35 isolates (46.7%) from urine, (10.7%) from wounds, (13.3%) from burns and diabetic foot and 12 isolates (16%) from vaginal swabs and tested against 15 antibiotics for susceptibility. The prevalence of multi drug- resistance ( MDR) in this study was high (97%) while only 2 isolates was tended to be extensively drug -resistance (XDR) (3%) no pan-drug –resistance(PDR) was detected. From 12 isolates of p.mirabilis 9 Intl1 and 6 Intl2 genes were detectable. homology between the sequenced sample of P. mirabilis reference target sequences. These genes were sequenced and phylogenetic relationships among these genes and global genes were documented in NCBI. The study suggests that some Iraqi isolates contain genetic variation compared to global strains and demonstrated the utility of IntI1, IntI2 sequencing in investigating the genetic diversity of P. mirabilis strains and offering insights into the evolutionary history of these crucial bacterial pathogens.