Proteus isolated from a patient of UTI will show which biochemical reaction-

Ans. is 'a' i.e., Phenyl-pyruvic acid reaction Proteuso They are gram negative, non capsulated, pleomorphic, motile bacilli.o Proteus bacilli are divided in to three genera.# Proteus-Proteus vulgaris, Proteus mirabilis# Morganella-Morganella morganii# Providencia-Prov. alcalifaciens, Prov stuartii, Prov. rettgerio Most of them except providencia strains, produce powerful ureaseo Acharacterstic feature of proteus bacilli is "PPA reaction"o It is due to presence of enzyme phenylalanine deaminase which converts phenylalanine to phenyl pyruvic acid,o Culture of proteus bacilli have a characteristic putrefactive odour described as "fishy or seminar.o They produce swarming growth over the surface of agar, except for morganella morganni which does not swarmo Dienes phenomenon is used to detect swarming growth (Note: Dienes method is used to study mycoplasma colony)o Some non motile proteus strains (OX-2, OX-19 and OX-K) are used in weil-felix agglutination reaction for the diagnosis of rickettsiae infections.o Proteus mirabilis is an important cause of urinary and septic infections, often nosocomialo Proteus bacilli are resistant to many of common antibiotics. An exception is Pr. mirabilis which is senstive to ampicillin and cephalosporins.o Their ability to generate histamine form contaminated fish has implicated in the pathogenesis of scombroid poisoning.o Proteus produces phosphate stanes in kidney as it produces ammonia and contributes to alkalinity which leads to necrosis of renal tubular epithelium with precipitation of phosphate stones.