Uropathogenic Escherichia coli is the main cause of urinary tract infections, the ability of this bacteria to cause urinary tract infections is related to a variety of virulence factors that enhance colonization and evade the immune response, one of these virulence factors is cytotoxic necrotizing factor 1 toxin which converts the glutamine residue to glutamic acid to activated GTPase Rho family. The study was meant to find out the prevalence rate of the cnf1 gene in Uropathogenic Escherichia coli isolated from Iraqi patients. Conventional laboratory methods were used for primary bacterial identification and molecular methods were used to confirm bacterial identity and gene detection. Escherichia coli was identified in 89/165 (53.93%) of the urine specimens based on cultural characteristics on MacConkey and eosin methylene blue agar, concerning the results of 16SrRNA gene amplification for identification of Escherichia coli, this gene was present in all primary identified 89 isolates, which confirm the identification. cnf1 gene was detected in 37/89 (41.57 %), while 52/89 (58.42%) of isolates lack the cnf1 gene with no significant differences (P>0.05). Remarkably, the current and previous local investigations showed the prevalence rate of the cnf1 gene in uropathogenic Escherichia coli in Iraq has been increasing gradually during the past twelve years. The significant prevalence of cnf1-positive isolates in urinary tract infections suggests the spreading of severely gene-toxic isolates.
