Molecular characterization, antimicrobial resistance and clinico-bioinformatics approaches to address the problem of extended-spectrum β-lactamase-producing Escherichia coli in western Saudi Arabia.

The goal of this study was to genotypically characterize extended-spectrum β-lactamase-producing Escherichia coli isolates from the western region of Saudi Arabia and to identify active antibiotics against these isolates using phenotypic and molecular modeling. In total, 211 ESBL-producing E. coli isolates recovered from heterogeneous clinical specimens were identified by MALDI-TOF.

Composition of soil microbiome along elevation gradients in southwestern highlands of Saudi Arabia.

Background: Saudi Arabia is mostly barren except the southwestern highlands that are susceptible to environmental changes, a hotspot for biodiversity, but poorly studied for microbial diversity and composition. In this study, 454-pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA gene hypervariable region V6 was used to analyze soil bacterial community along elevation gradients of the southwestern highlands.

Results: In general, lower percentage of total soil organic matter (SOM) and nitrogen were detected in the analyzed soil samples.