Transferable nitrofuran resistance conferred by R-plasmids in clinical isolates of Escherichia coli. - Related Documents




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42001.0000Transferable nitrofuran resistance conferred by R-plasmids in clinical isolates of Escherichia coli. A high proportion of nitrofuran-resistant strains has been found in a collection of antibiotic-resistant Gram-negative bacteria isolated from patients with urinary tract infections. Some of the Escherichia coli carried R-plasmids that conferred resistance to nitrofurantoin and nitrofurazone. The mechanism of resistance is not clear; only in lactose non-fermenting recipients was there a decrease in the nitrofuran-reducing ability of whole-cell suspensions. One of the plasmids conferred enhanced resistance to UV light on DNA repair defective mutants but not on repair efficient strains. In some resistant strains, the total resistance was apparently the result of a combination of chromosomal and plasmid-borne genes. The presence of the plasmid may allow the development of higher resistance levels by mutation of chromosomal genes.19836368515
38710.9998Expression of tetracycline resistance in pBR322 derivatives reduces the reproductive fitness of plasmid-containing Escherichia coli. Plasmid pBR322 and its numerous derivatives are used extensively for research and in biotechnology. The tetracycline-resistance (TcR) genes in these plasmids are expressed constitutively and cells carrying these plasmids are resistant to tetracycline. We have shown that expression of the TcR gene has an adverse effect on the reproductive fitness of plasmid-containing bacteria in both glucose-limited batch and chemostat cultures. If the TcR genes are inactivated at any one of three different restriction sites, mixed cultures of plasmid-free and plasmid-containing bacteria grow at the same rate.19853005111
626520.9998Fitness costs of fluoroquinolone resistance in Streptococcus pneumoniae. The fitness cost of the genes responsible for resistance to fluoroquinolones in clinical isolates of Streptococcus pneumoniae were estimated in vitro in a common genetic background. Naturally occurring parC, parE, and gyrA loci containing mutations in the quinolone-resistance-determining regions were introduced by transformation into S. pneumoniae strain R6 individually and in combinations. The fitness of these transformants was estimated by pairwise competition experiments with a common R6 strain. On average, single par and gyr mutants responsible for low-level MIC resistance (first-step resistance) impose a fitness burden of approximately 8%. Some of these mutants engender no measurable cost, while one, a parE mutant, reduces the fitness of these bacteria by more than 40%. Most interestingly, the addition of the second par or gyr mutations required for clinically significant, high-MIC fluoroquinolone resistance does not increase the fitness burden imposed by these single genes and can even reduce it. We discuss the implications of these results for the epidemiology of fluoroquinolone resistance and the evolution of acquired resistance in treated patients.200717116668
491330.9997Multiple Plasmids Contribute to Antibiotic Resistance and Macrophage Survival In Vitro in CMY2-Bearing Salmonella enterica. Multiple drug resistance (MDR) in bacteria represents a notable problem but if carried on plasmid their spread could become a significant threat to public health. Plasmids in members of the Enterobacteriaceae family and in particular Salmonella and Escherichia coli strains have been implicated in the spread of antibiotic resistance genes. However, the mechanisms involved in the transfer of plasmid-borne resistance genes are not fully understood. Here, we analyzed the ability of Salmonella enterica clinical isolates to transfer plasmid-borne MDR to E. coli. We also determined whether possession of an Inc A/C plasmid by a S. enterica isolate would confer increased fitness compared to an isolate not carrying the plasmid. Sixteen human and animal isolates of S. enterica were screened using a three-panel multiplex PCR assay, and simplex PCR for the blaCMY-2 gene. Using these data we selected a suitable strain as a plasmid donor for the construction of a new Salmonella strain with an Inc A/C plasmid. This allowed us to compare isogenic strains with and without the Inc A/C plasmid in multiple growth, fitness, and invasion assays. The results showed that possession of Inc A/C plasmid confers significant fitness advantage when tested in J774 macrophages as opposed to HEp-2 cells where no significant difference was found. In addition, stress assays performed in vitro showed that the possession of this large plasmid by Salmonella strains tested here does not appear to incur a significant fitness cost. Gaining a better understanding of molecular mechanisms of plasmid transfer between pathogenic bacteria will allow us to characterize the role of MDR in pathogenicity of bacteria and to identify methods to reduce the frequency of dissemination of multiple antibiotic resistance genes.201627070176
446040.9997Study of Plasmid-Mediated Quinolone Resistance in Bacteria. Plasmid-mediated quinolone resistance (PMQR) involves genes for proteins that protect the quinolone targets, an enzyme that inactivates certain quinolones as well as aminoglycosides, and pumps that efflux quinolones. Quinolone susceptibility is reduced by these mechanisms but not to the level of clinical resistance unless chromosomal mutations are also present. PCR primers and conditions for PMQR gene detection are described as well as how to establish a plasmid location.201829177751
449950.9997Organization of two sulfonamide resistance genes on plasmids of gram-negative bacteria. The organization of two widely distributed sulfonamide resistance genes has been studied. The type I gene was linked to other resistance genes, like streptomycin resistance in R100 and trimethoprim resistance in R388 and other recently isolated plasmids from Sri Lanka. In R388, the sulfonamide resistance gene was transcribed from a promoter of its own, but in all other studied plasmids the linked genes were transcribed from a common promoter. This was especially established with a clone derived from plasmid R6-5, in which transposon mutagenesis showed that expression of sulfonamide resistance was completely dependent on the linked streptomycin resistance gene. The type II sulfonamide resistance gene was independently transcribed and found on two kinds of small resistance plasmids and also on large plasmids isolated from clinical material.19873032095
380560.9997De Novo Characterization of Genes That Contribute to High-Level Ciprofloxacin Resistance in Escherichia coli. Sensitization of resistant bacteria to existing antibiotics depends on the identification of candidate targets whose activities contribute to resistance. Using a transposon insertion library in an Escherichia coli mutant that was 2,000 times less susceptible to ciprofloxacin than its parent and the relative fitness scores, we identified 19 genes that contributed to the acquired ciprofloxacin resistance and mapped the shortest genetic path that increased the antibiotic susceptibility of the resistant bacteria back to a near wild-type level.201627431218
625670.9997Conjugation between quinolone-susceptible bacteria can generate mutations in the quinolone resistance-determining region, inducing quinolone resistance. Quinolones are an important group of antibacterial agents that can inhibit DNA gyrase and topoisomerase IV activity. DNA gyrase is responsible for maintaining bacteria in a negatively supercoiled state, being composed of subunits A and B. Topoisomerase IV is a homologue of DNA gyrase and consists of two subunits codified by the parC and parE genes. Mutations in gyrA and gyrB of DNA gyrase may confer resistance to quinolones, and the majority of resistant strains show mutations between positions 67 and 106 of gyrA, a region denoted the quinolone resistance-determining region (QRDR). The most frequent substitutions occur at positions 83 and 87, but little is known about the mechanisms promoting appearance of mutations in the QRDR. The present study proposes that some mutations in the QRDR could be generated as a result of the natural mechanism of conjugation between bacteria in their natural habitat. This event was observed following conjugation in vitro of two different isolates of quinolone-susceptible Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which transferred plasmids of different molecular weights to a recipient strain of Escherichia coli (HB101), also quinolone-susceptible, generating two different transconjugants that presented mutations in DNA gyrase and acquisition of resistance to all quinolones tested.201525262036
494780.9997Use of plasmid profiles in epidemiologic surveillance of disease outbreaks and in tracing the transmission of antibiotic resistance. Plasmids are circular deoxyribonucleic acid molecules that exist in bacteria, usually independent of the chromosome. The study of plasmids is important to medical microbiology because plasmids can encode genes for antibiotic resistance or virulence factors. Plasmids can also serve as markers of various bacterial strains when a typing system referred to as plasmid profiling, or plasmid fingerprinting is used. In these methods partially purified plasma deoxyribonucleic acid species are separated according to molecular size by agarose gel electrophoresis. In a second procedure, plasmid deoxyribonucleic acid which has been cleaved by restriction endonucleases can be separated by agarose gel electrophoresis and the resulting pattern of fragments can be used to verify the identity of bacterial isolates. Because many species of bacteria contain plasmids, plasmid profile typing has been used to investigate outbreaks of many bacterial diseases and to trace inter- and intra-species spread of antibiotic resistance.19882852997
447390.9997The genetics of bacterial trimethoprim resistance in tropical areas. Resistance to trimethoprim in Gram-negative bacteria is largely manifested by two trimethoprim resistant dihydrofolate reductases (types I and II) encoded by genes originally located on resistance plasmids. Although trimethoprim resistance increased markedly after the clinical introduction of trimethoprim in the West, its spread has slowed and, in Edinburgh at least, has actually been declining. This reduction has been accompanied by the migration of a transposon, encoding the type I plasmid resistance gene, into the bacterial chromosome. In tropical areas, the incidence of trimethoprim resistance is very much higher. In Tanzania, it has spilled over into other bacteria outside the Enterobacteriaceae, but it was in India where the major problem existed. The majority (64%) of the Indian Enterobacteriaceae studied were resistant to the drug and most of the resistance genes were located on very large plasmids which also conferred resistance to many other antibacterial drugs. Some Indian plasmids carried a new trimethoprim resistance gene which is not detectable by conventional sensitivity tests and may be spreading unnoticed elsewhere. The proportion of trimethoprim resistance has been related to the volume of antibacterial drugs used.19873318025
6255100.9997Effects of a Mutation in the gyrA Gene on the Virulence of Uropathogenic Escherichia coli. Fluoroquinolones are among the drugs most extensively used for the treatment of bacterial infections in human and veterinary medicine. Resistance to quinolones can be chromosome or plasmid mediated. The chromosomal mechanism of resistance is associated with mutations in the DNA gyrase- and topoisomerase IV-encoding genes and mutations in regulatory genes affecting different efflux systems, among others. We studied the role of the acquisition of a mutation in the gyrA gene in the virulence and protein expression of uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC). The HC14366M strain carrying a mutation in the gyrA gene (S83L) was found to lose the capacity to cause cystitis and pyelonephritis mainly due to a decrease in the expression of the fimA, papA, papB, and ompA genes. The levels of expression of the fimA, papB, and ompA genes were recovered on complementing the strain with a plasmid containing the gyrA wild-type gene. However, only a slight recovery was observed in the colonization of the bladder in the GyrA complement strain compared to the mutant strain in a murine model of ascending urinary tract infection. In conclusion, a mutation in the gyrA gene of uropathogenic E. coli reduced the virulence of the bacteria, likely in association with the effect of DNA supercoiling on the expression of several virulence factors and proteins, thereby decreasing their capacity to cause cystitis and pyelonephritis.201526014933
5977110.9997Methods to determine antibiotic resistance gene silencing. The occurrence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is an increasingly serious problem world-wide. In addition, to phenotypically resistant bacteria, a threat may also be posed by isolates with silent, but intact, antibiotic resistance genes. Such isolates, which have recently been described, possess wild-type genes that are not expressed, but may convert to resistance by activating expression of the silent genes. They may therefore compromise the efficacy of antimicrobial treatment, particularly if their presence has not been diagnosed. This chapter describes the detection of silent resistance genes by PCR and DNA sequencing. A method to detect five potentially silent acquired resistance genes; aadA, bla (OXA-2), strAB, sul1, and tet(A) is described. First, the susceptibility of the isolates to the relevant antibiotics is determined by an appropriate susceptibility testing method, such as E-test. Then the presence of the genes is investigated by PCR followed by agarose gel electrophoresis of the amplification products. If a resistance gene is detected in a susceptible isolate, the entire open-reading frame and promoter sequence of the gene is amplified by PCR and their DNA sequences obtained. The DNA sequences are then compared to those of known resistant isolates, to detect mutations that may account for susceptibility. If no mutations are detected the expression of the gene is investigated by RT-PCR following RNA extraction. The methods described here can be applied to all acquired resistance genes for which sequence and normal expression data are available.201020401584
9827120.9997Evolution of bacterial resistance to antibiotics during the last three decades. Bacterial resistance to antibiotics is often plasmid-mediated and the associated genes encoded by transposable elements. These elements play a central role in evolution by providing mechanisms for the generation of diversity and, in conjunction with DNA transfer systems, for the dissemination of resistances to other bacteria. At the University Hospital of Zaragoza, extensive efforts have been made to define both the dissemination and evolution of antibiotic resistance by studying the transferable R plasmids and transposable elements. Here we describe the research on bacterial resistance to antibiotics in which many authors listed in the references have participated. The aspects of bacterial resistance dealt with are: (i) transferable resistance mediated by R plasmids in Gram-negative bacteria, (ii) R plasmid-mediated resistance to apramycin and hygromycin in clinical strains, (iii) the transposon Tn1696 and the integron In4, (iv) expression of Escherichia coli resistance genes in Haemophilus influenzae, (v) aminoglycoside-modifying-enzymes in the genus Mycobacterium with no relation to resistance, and (vi) macrolide-resistance and new mechanisms developed by Gram-positive bacteria.199810943375
4495130.9997Mutations in the bacterial ribosomal protein l3 and their association with antibiotic resistance. Different groups of antibiotics bind to the peptidyl transferase center (PTC) in the large subunit of the bacterial ribosome. Resistance to these groups of antibiotics has often been linked with mutations or methylations of the 23S rRNA. In recent years, there has been a rise in the number of studies where mutations have been found in the ribosomal protein L3 in bacterial strains resistant to PTC-targeting antibiotics but there is often no evidence that these mutations actually confer antibiotic resistance. In this study, a plasmid exchange system was used to replace plasmid-carried wild-type genes with mutated L3 genes in a chromosomal L3 deletion strain. In this way, the essential L3 gene is available for the bacteria while allowing replacement of the wild type with mutated L3 genes. This enables investigation of the effect of single mutations in Escherichia coli without a wild-type L3 background. Ten plasmid-carried mutated L3 genes were constructed, and their effect on growth and antibiotic susceptibility was investigated. Additionally, computational modeling of the impact of L3 mutations in E. coli was used to assess changes in 50S structure and antibiotic binding. All mutations are placed in the loops of L3 near the PTC. Growth data show that 9 of the 10 mutations were well accepted in E. coli, although some of them came with a fitness cost. Only one of the mutants exhibited reduced susceptibility to linezolid, while five exhibited reduced susceptibility to tiamulin.201525845869
4419140.9997Epidemiology of tetracycline-resistance determinants. Resistance to tetracycline is generally due either to energy-dependent efflux of tetracycline or to protection of the bacterial ribosomes from the action of tetracycline. The genes that encode this resistance are normally acquired via transferable plasmids and/or transposons. Tet determinants have been found in a wide range of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria and have reduced the effectiveness of therapy with tetracycline.19947850200
4497150.9997Detection and expression analysis of tet(B) in Streptococcus oralis. Tetracycline resistance can be achieved through tet genes, which code for efflux pumps, ribosomal protection proteins and inactivation enzymes. Some of these genes have only been described in either Gram-positive or Gram-negative bacteria. This is the case of tet(B), which codes for an efflux pump and, so far, had only been found in Gram-negative bacteria. In this study, tet(B) was detected in two clinical Streptococcus oralis strains isolated from the gingival sulci of two subjects. In both cases, the gene was completely sequenced, yielding 100% shared identity and coverage with other previously published sequences of tet(B). Moreover, we studied the expression of tet(B) using RT-qPCR in the isolates grown with and without tetracycline, detecting constitutive expression in only one of the isolates, with no signs of expression in the other one. This is the first time that the presence and expression of the tet(B) gene has been confirmed in Gram-positive bacteria, which highlights the potential of the genus Streptococcus to become a reservoir and a disseminator of antibiotic resistance genes in an environment so prone to horizontal gene transfer as is the oral biofilm.201931448060
4840160.9997Beta-lactam antibiotics and selection of resistance: speculation on the evolution of R-plasmids. In this paper we describe two genetic mechanisms which are responsible for the development of resistance to third-generation cephalosporins. One is a plasmid-mediated mechanism involving a mutation in the SHV-1-gene towards the production of the beta-lactamase SHV-2 which has increased affinity for these antibiotics. The other is chromosomally mediated and occurs at high frequency by mutation of inducible beta-lactamase-genes, leading to derepressed production of the enzyme. Together with other examples of resistance genes these two mechanisms lead us to a hypothesis about the evolution of beta-lactamase producing bacteria.19863542929
3599170.9997Distribution of the pco Gene Cluster and Associated Genetic Determinants among Swine Escherichia coli from a Controlled Feeding Trial. Copper is used as an alternative to antibiotics for growth promotion and disease prevention. However, bacteria developed tolerance mechanisms for elevated copper concentrations, including those encoded by the pco operon in Gram-negative bacteria. Using cohorts of weaned piglets, this study showed that the supplementation of feed with copper concentrations as used in the field did not result in a significant short-term increase in the proportion of pco-positive fecal Escherichia coli. The pco and sil (silver resistance) operons were found concurrently in all screened isolates, and whole-genome sequencing showed that they were distributed among a diversity of unrelated E. coli strains. The presence of pco/sil in E. coli was not associated with elevated copper minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) under a variety of conditions. As found in previous studies, the pco/sil operons were part of a Tn7-like structure found both on the chromosome or on plasmids in the E. coli strains investigated. Transfer of a pco/sil IncHI2 plasmid from E. coli to Salmonella enterica resulted in elevated copper MICs in the latter. Escherichia coli may represent a reservoir of pco/sil genes transferable to other organisms such as S. enterica, for which it may represent an advantage in the presence of copper. This, in turn, has the potential for co-selection of resistance to antibiotics.201830340352
4467180.9997PCR mapping of integrons reveals several novel combinations of resistance genes. The integron is a new type of mobile element which has evolved by a site-specific recombinational mechanism. Integrons consist of two conserved segments of DNA separated by a variable region containing one or more genes integrated as cassettes. Oligonucleotide probes specific for the conserved segments have revealed that integrons are widespread in recently isolated clinical bacteria. Also, by using oligonucleotide probes for several antibiotic resistance genes, we have found novel combinations of resistance genes in these strains. By using PCR, we have determined the content and order of the resistance genes inserted between the conserved segments in the integrons of these clinical isolates. PCR mapping of integrons can be a useful epidemiological tool to study the evolution of multiresistance plasmids and transposons and dissemination of antibiotic resistance genes.19957695304
4465190.9997Genetic analyses of sulfonamide resistance and its dissemination in gram-negative bacteria illustrate new aspects of R plasmid evolution. In contrast to what has been observed for many other antibiotic resistance mechanisms, there are only two known genes encoding plasmid-borne sulfonamide resistance. Both genes, sulI and sulII, encode a drug-resistant dihydropteroate synthase enzyme. In members of the family Enterobacteriaceae isolated from several worldwide sources, plasmid-mediated resistance to sulfonamides could be identified by colony hybridization as being encoded by sulI, sulII, or both. The sulI gene was in all cases found to be located in the newly defined, mobile genetic element, recently named an integron, which has been shown to contain a site-specific recombination system for the integration of various antibiotic resistance genes. The sulII gene was almost exclusively found as part of a variable resistance region on small, nonconjugative plasmids. Colony hybridization to an intragenic probe, restriction enzyme digestion, and nucleotide sequence analysis of small plasmids indicated that the sulII gene and contiguous sequences represent an independently occurring region disseminated in the bacterial population. The sulII resistance region was bordered by direct repeats, which in some plasmids were totally or partially deleted. The prevalence of sulI and sulII could thus be accounted for by their stable integration in transposons and in plasmids that are widely disseminated among gram-negative bacteria.19911952855