Open AccessCo-occurrence of Plasmid-Mediated Tigecycline and Carbapenem Resistance in Acinetobacter spp. from Waterfowls and Their Neighboring Environment
Author(s) -
ChaoYue Cui,
Chong Chen,
BaoTao Liu,
He Qian,
Xiao-Ting Wu,
Ruan-Yang Sun,
Yan Zhang,
Ze-Hua Cui,
Wenying Guo,
Qiu-Lin Jia,
Cang Li,
Barry N. Kreiswirth,
XiaoPing Liao,
Liang Chen,
Yahong Liu,
Jian Sun
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.07
H-Index - 259
eISSN - 1070-6283
pISSN - 0066-4804
DOI - 10.1128/aac.02502-19
Subject(s) - tigecycline , plasmid , biology , acinetobacter , microbiology and biotechnology , multiple drug resistance , gene , genetics , antibiotics
Tigecycline serves as one of the antibiotics of last resort to treat multidrug-resistant (including carbapenem-resistant) pathogens. However, the recently emerged plasmid-mediated tigecycline resistance mechanism, Tet(X), challenges the clinical efficacy of this class of antibiotics. In this study, we detected 180 tet (X)-harboring Acinetobacter isolates (8.9%, n = 180) from 2,018 samples collected from avian farms and adjacent environments in China. Eighteen tet (X)-harboring isolates (10.0%) were found to cocarry the carbapenemase gene bla NDM-1 , mostly from waterfowl samples (94.4%, 17/18). Interestingly, among six Acinetobacter strains, tet (X) and bla NDM-1 were found to colocalize on the same plasmids. Moreover, whole-genome sequencing (WGS) revealed a novel orthologue of tet (X) in the six isolates coharboring tet (X) and bla NDM-1 Inverse PCR suggested that the two tet (X) genes form a single transposable unit and may be cotransferred. Sequence comparison between six tet (X)- and bla NDM-1 -coharboring plasmids showed that they shared a highly homologous plasmid backbone even though they were isolated from different Acinetobacter species (three from Acinetobacter indicus , two from Acinetobacter schindleri , and one from Acinetobacter lwoffii ) from various sources and from different geological regions, suggesting the horizontal genetic transfer of a common tet (X)- and bla NDM-1 -coharboring plasmid among Acinetobacter species in China. Emergence and spread of such plasmids and strains are of great clinical concern, and measures must be implemented to avoid their dissemination.