Tigecycline is one of the last-resort antibiotics to treat complicated infections caused by both multidrug-resistant Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria1. Tigecycline resistance has sporadically occurred in recent years, primarily due to chromosome-encoding mechanisms, such as overexpression of efflux pumps and ribosome protection2,3. Here, we report the emergence of the plasmid-mediated mobile tigecycline resistance mechanism Tet(X4) in Escherichia coli isolates from China, which is capable of degrading all tetracyclines, including tigecycline and the US FDA newly approved eravacycline. The tet(X4)-harbouring IncQ1 plasmid is highly transferable, and can be successfully mobilized and stabilized in recipient clinical and laboratory strains of Enterobacteriaceae bacteria. It…
Despite a fitness cost imposed on bacterial hosts, large conjugative plasmids play a key role in the diffusion of resistance determinants, such as CTX-M extended-spectrum ß-lactamases. Among the large conjugative plasmids, IncF plasmids are the most predominant group, and an F2:A1:B- IncF-type plasmid encoding a CTX-M-15 variant was recently described as being strongly associated with the emerging worldwide Escherichia coli sequence type 131 (ST131)-O25b:H4 H30Rx/C2 sublineage. In this context, we investigated the fitness cost of narrow-range F-type plasmids, including the F2:A1:B- IncF-type CTX-M-15 plasmid, and of broad-range C-type plasmids in the K-12-like J53-2 E. coli strain. Although all plasmids imposed…
The increased prevalence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) among Enterobacteriaceae has had major clinical and economic impacts on human medicine. Many of the multidrug-resistant (multiresistant) Enterobacteriaceae found in humans are community acquired, and some of them are possibly linked to food animals (i.e., livestock raised for meat and dairy products). In this study, we examined whether numerically dominant commensal Escherichia coli strains from humans (n?=?63 isolates) and domestic animals (n?=?174 isolates) in the same community and with matching phenotypic AMR patterns were clonally related or shared the same plasmids. We identified 25 multiresistant isolates (i.e., isolates resistant to more than one…
New Delhi metallo-ß-lactamase (NDM)-5-producing Enterobacteriaceae have been detected in rivers, sewage, and effluents from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Environmental contamination due to discharged effluents is of particular concern as NDM variants may be released into waterways, thereby posing a risk to humans. In this study, we collected effluent samples from a WWTP discharged into a canal in Tokyo Bay, Japan.Testing included the complete genome sequencing of Escherichia coli GSH8M-2 isolated from the effluent as well as a gene network analysis.The complete genome sequencing of GSH8M-2 revealed that it was an NDM-5-producing E. coli strain sequence type ST542, which carries multiple…
IS26-flanked transposons played an increasingly important part in the mobilization and development of resistance determinants. Heterogeneous resistance-encoding plasmid clusters with polymorphic MDR regions (MRRs) conferred by IS26 in an individual Escherichia coli isolate have not yet been detected.To characterize the complete sequence of a novel blaCTX-M-65- and fosA3-carrying IncZ-7 plasmid with dynamic MRRs from an E. coli isolate, and to depict the mechanism underlying the spread of resistance determinants and genetic polymorphisms.The molecular characterization of a strain carrying blaCTX-M-65 and fosA3 was analysed by antimicrobial susceptibility testing and MLST. The transferability of a plasmid bearing blaCTX-M-65 and fosA3 was determined…