World Journal of
Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences

MOLECULAR CHARACTERIZATION OF BACTERIA FROM EDIBLE VEGETABLES SOLD IN NNEWI MARKETS, ANAMBRA STATE

Nwachukwu Anthonia Chinwe*, Ekejindu Ifeoma M., Ochiabuto Ogochukwu M. Barbara, Okwelogu Izunna Somadina and Okpara Vivian Chinenye

ABSTRACT

Vegetables are dietary source of nutrient, vitamins and fiber for human growth and development cultivated with irrigation water and sewages which can cause contamination. A cross sectional study on molecular characterization of bacteria from edible vegetables and tubers sold in Nnewi markets in Anambra State was conducted. A total of 360 vegetable samples obtained from 8 kinds of vegetables from two markets (Nkwo-edo and Orie- agbor) were used. Bacterial contamination was accessed by serial dilution- pour plate method, identified and significant count done. Some bacteria were further identified molecularly with Proteinase K enzymatic method, sequenced according to NCBI blast nucleotide sequence, and blasted with program selection optimized for highly similar sequences (Megablast). Phylogenetic tree was constructed using Neighborjoining method in the Geneious package (version 9.0.5). Statistical analysis was done using SPSS version 21.Results revealed that out of 360 vegetables sampled, 17 (9.2%) were contaminated with bacteria which include Escherichia coli 4(4.1%), Pseudomonas species 5(1.4%), Enterococcus gallinarum 4 (1.1%), Proteus species and Klebsiella pneumonia 3(0.8%), Enterobacter species 2 (0.5%), Alcaligenes feacalis, Enterococcus casseliflavus, Sporosarcina contaminans, and Ochrobacterum anthropi 1(0.3%). Highest occurrence of bacteria in vegetables from Orie-agbor market and Nkwo-edo markets were Proteus sp. 1(6.6%) and Pseudomonas sp. 3(1.6%), while most contaminated vegetable were Daucus carota (carrot) 3 (13.6%) and Latuca sativa (Lettuce) 4 (17.4%). Phylogenic analysis of bacteria based on nucleotide sequence of part of the 16srRNA showed numbers of occurrences of repetitive groups with T1_907-R(C02.8.abI , T2_907-R(D02.11.abI;T3_907-R(E02.14.abI;T4_907-R(F02.1`7.abI, T6_907-R(G02.20.abI, T7_907-R(H08.23. abI, T8_907-R(H02.23.abI ,T9_907-R(A09.03.abI, and T10_907-R(AO3.abI isolates having similar sequence with some stored isolates in the gene bank with several accession numbers.Contaminated vegetables from Nnewi markets contain pathogenic bacteria isolates which can serve as possible source of gastroenteritis. It is necessary that preventive awareness should be created in the area.

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