AUTHOR=Xu Zhijiang , Shen Weiyi , Zhang Rong , Cai Jiachang 

TITLE=Clonal Dissemination of Aeromonas hydrophila With Binary Carriage of blaKPC-2-Bearing Plasmids in a Chinese Hospital

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology

VOLUME=13

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2022.918561

DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2022.918561

ISSN=1664-302X

ABSTRACT=<p>Dissemination of the <italic>Klebsiella pneumoniae</italic> carbapenemase (KPC)-encoding gene among Enterobacterales is common but relatively rare in <italic>Aeromonas</italic> spp. In this study, we characterized two KPC-2-producing <italic>Aeromonas hydrophila</italic> strains (Ah2101 and Ah2111), each isolated from a patient in different intensive care units (ICUs) of a Chinese hospital. Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) revealed simultaneous carriage of the <italic>bla</italic><sub>KPC−2</sub> and <italic>imiH</italic> genes, both of which encode high-level carbapenem resistance in these two <italic>A. hydrophila</italic> isolates. The two isolates were shown to be clonally related and each isolate harbored two distinguishable <italic>bla</italic><sub>KPC−2</sub>-bearing plasmids, only one of which was transferrable to <italic>A. hydrophila</italic>, but not <italic>Escherichia coli</italic> EC600 <italic>via</italic> conjugation. The genetic element that contains <italic>bla</italic><sub>KPC−2</sub> in these two plasmids, namely IS<italic>Kpn27</italic>-Δ<italic>bla</italic><sub>TEM−1</sub>-<italic>bla</italic><sub>KPC−2</sub>-IS<italic>Kpn6</italic>, was structurally identical, commonly detected in Enterobacterales, and associated with Tn<italic>3</italic>-based transposons. In addition, more than sixty putative genes that encode various virulence factors were identified in these two <italic>A. hydrophila</italic> isolates. This is the first study that reports clonal dissemination of carbapenem-resistant <italic>A. hydrophila</italic> strains carrying structurally different <italic>bla</italic><sub>KPC−2</sub>-bearing plasmids. Further investigation is warranted to monitor the future transmission of <italic>bla</italic><sub>KPC−2</sub>-bearing plasmids in <italic>A. hydrophila</italic> in clinical settings.</p>