Published:
Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2024
Published in:
Annals of Clinical Microbiology and Antimicrobials, 23 (2024) 1
Language:
English
DOI:
10.1186/s12941-024-00699-y
ISSN:
1476-0711
Origination:
Footnote:
Description:
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:sec>
<jats:title>Objective</jats:title>
<jats:p>To analyze the clinical infection characteristics and genetic environments of resistance genes in carbapenem-resistant <jats:italic>Citrobacter europaeus</jats:italic> using whole-genome sequencing.</jats:p>
</jats:sec><jats:sec>
<jats:title>Methods</jats:title>
<jats:p>The susceptibility of two clinical isolates of <jats:italic>C. europaeus</jats:italic> (WF0003 and WF1643) to 24 antimicrobial agents was assessed using the BD Phoenix™ M50 System and Kirby-Bauer (K-B) disk-diffusion method. Whole-genome sequencing was performed on the Illumina and Nanopore platforms, and ABRicate software was used to predict resistance and virulence genes of carbapenem-resistant <jats:italic>C. europaeus</jats:italic>. The characteristics of plasmids carrying carbapenem-resistance genes and their genetic environments were analyzed. Single nucleotide polymorphisms were used to construct a phylogenetic tree to analyze the homology of these two <jats:italic>C. europaeus</jats:italic> strains with ten strains of <jats:italic>C. europaeus</jats:italic> in the NCBI database.</jats:p>
</jats:sec><jats:sec>
<jats:title>Results</jats:title>
<jats:p>The two strains of carbapenem-resistant <jats:italic>C. europaeus</jats:italic> are resistant to various antimicrobial agents, particularly carbapenems and β-lactams. WF0003 carries <jats:italic>bla</jats:italic><jats:sub>NDM− 1</jats:sub>, which is located on an IncX3 plasmid that has high homology to the pNDM-HN380 plasmid. <jats:italic>bla</jats:italic><jats:sub>NDM− 1</jats:sub> is located on a truncated Tn<jats:italic>125</jats:italic>. It differs from Tn<jats:italic>125</jats:italic> by the insertion of IS<jats:italic>5</jats:italic> in the upstream ISA<jats:italic>ba125</jats:italic> and the deletion of the downstream ISA<jats:italic>ba125</jats:italic>, which is replaced by IS<jats:italic>26</jats:italic>. WF1643 carries <jats:italic>bla</jats:italic><jats:sub>OXA− 48</jats:sub> in a Tn<jats:italic>1999</jats:italic> transposon on the IncL/M plasmid, carrying only that single drug resistance gene. Homology analysis of these two strains of <jats:italic>C. europaeus</jats:italic> with ten <jats:italic>C. europaeus</jats:italic> strains in the NCBI database revealed that the 12 strains can be classified into three clades, with both WF0003 and WF1643 in the B clade.</jats:p>
</jats:sec><jats:sec>
<jats:title>Conclusion</jats:title>
<jats:p>To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to report an IncX3 plasmid carrying <jats:italic>bla</jats:italic><jats:sub>NDM− 1</jats:sub> in <jats:italic>C. europaeus</jats:italic> in China. <jats:italic>C. europaeus</jats:italic> strains harboring carbapenem-resistance genes are concerning in relation to the spread of antimicrobial resistance, and the presence of carbapenem-resistance genes in <jats:italic>C. europaeus</jats:italic> should be continuously monitored.</jats:p>
</jats:sec>