Open AccessGenomic and phenotypic comparison of environmental and patient-derived isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa suggest that antimicrobial resistance is rare within the environment
Author(s) -
Kay A. Ramsay,
Samuel J. T. Wardell,
Wayne M. Patrick,
Ben Brockway,
David Reid,
Craig Winstanley,
Scott C. Bell,
Iain L. Lamont
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of medical microbiology/journal of medical microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.91
H-Index - 117
eISSN - 1473-5644
pISSN - 0022-2615
DOI - 10.1099/jmm.0.001085
Subject(s) - pseudomonas aeruginosa , tobramycin , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , ceftazidime , antibiotic resistance , ciprofloxacin , antibiotics , antimicrobial , meropenem , bacteria , genetics
Patient-derived isolates of the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa are frequently resistant to antibiotics due to the presence of sequence variants in resistance-associated genes. However, the frequency of antibiotic resistance and of resistance-associated sequence variants in environmental isolates of P. aeruginosa has not been well studied. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing (ciprofloxacin, ceftazidime, meropenem, tobramycin) of environmental ( n =50) and cystic fibrosis ( n =42) P. aeruginosa isolates was carried out. Following whole genome sequencing of all isolates, 25 resistance-associated genes were analysed for the presence of likely function-altering sequence variants. Environmental isolates were susceptible to all antibiotics with one exception, whereas patient-derived isolates had significant frequencies of resistance to each antibiotic and a greater number of likely resistance-associated genetic variants. These findings indicate that the natural environment does not act as a reservoir of antibiotic-resistant P. aeruginosa, supporting a model in which antibiotic susceptible environmental bacteria infect patients and develop resistance during infection.