AUTHOR=Guan Jiayao , Zhou Wei , Guo Jingyi , Zheng Lin , Lu Gejin , Hua Fuyou , Liu Mingwei , Ji Xue , Sun Yang , Zhu Lingwei , Guo Xuejun 

TITLE=A Wohlfahrtiimonas chitiniclastica with a novel type of blaVEB–1-carrying plasmid isolated from a zebra in China

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology

VOLUME=14

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2023.1276314

DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2023.1276314

ISSN=1664-302X

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Background</title><p><italic>Wohlfahrtiimonas chitiniclastica</italic> is an emerging fly-borne zoonotic pathogen, which causes infections in immunocompromised patients and some animals. Herein, we reported a <italic>W. chitiniclastica</italic> BM-Y from a dead zebra in China.</p></sec><sec><title>Methods</title><p>The complete genome sequencing of BM-Y showed that this isolate carried one chromosome and one novel type of <italic>bla</italic><sub>VEB–1</sub>-carrying plasmid. Detailed genetic dissection was applied to this plasmid to display the genetic environment of <italic>bla</italic><sub>VEB–1</sub>.</p></sec><sec><title>Results</title><p>Three novel insertion sequence (IS) elements, namely IS<italic>Woch1</italic>, IS<italic>Woch2</italic>, and IS<italic>Woch3</italic>, were found in this plasmid. <italic>aadB</italic>, <italic>aacA1</italic>, and <italic>gcuG</italic> were located downstream of <italic>bla</italic><sub>VEB–1</sub>, composing a gene cassette array <italic>bla</italic><sub>VEB–1</sub>–<italic>aadB</italic>–<italic>aacA1</italic>–<italic>gcuG</italic> bracketed by an intact IS<italic>Woch1</italic> and a truncated one, which was named the <italic>bla</italic><sub>VEB–1</sub> region. The 5′-RACE experiments revealed that the transcription start site of the <italic>bla</italic><sub>VEB–1</sub> region was located in the intact IS<italic>Woch1</italic> and this IS provided a strong promoter for the <italic>bla</italic><sub>VEB–1</sub> region.</p></sec><sec><title>Conclusion</title><p>The spread of the <italic>bla</italic><sub>VEB–1</sub>-carrying plasmid might enhance the ability of <italic>W. chitiniclastica</italic> to survive under drug selection pressure and aggravate the difficulty in treating infections caused by <italic>bla</italic><sub>VEB–1</sub>-carrying <italic>W. chitiniclastica</italic>. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of the genetic characterization of a novel <italic>bla</italic><sub>VEB–1</sub>-carrying plasmid with new ISs from <italic>W. chitiniclastica</italic>.</p></sec>