AUTHOR=Fu Hongyu , Zhu Zhichen , Wang Xiao , Lv Jingnan , Zhu Jie , Chen Liang , Yu Hua , Du Hong 

TITLE=Emergence of blaNDM–1-carrying Enterobacter chengduensis in China

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology

VOLUME=15

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2024.1404996

DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2024.1404996

ISSN=1664-302X

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Introduction</title><p><italic>Enterobacter chengduensis</italic> was defined as a novel species in the genus. <italic>Enterobacter</italic> in 2019, however, antimicrobial resistance, such as carbapenem resistance, has rarely been described in <italic>E. chengduensis</italic>. This study described the molecular features of four carbapenem-resistant <italic>E. chengduensis</italic> strains collected from a tertiary health care hospital in Southwest China.</p></sec><sec><title>Methods</title><p>Whole genome sequencing (WGS) was used to determine the genome sequence of four <italic>E. chengduensis</italic> strains. The precise species of strains were identified by average nucleotide identity (ANI) and <italic>in silico</italic> DNA-DNA hybridization (isDDH). The clonal relatedness of four <italic>E. chengduensis</italic> strains and additional 15 ones from NCBI were examined through phylogenetic analysis. The molecular features of <italic>E. chengduensis</italic> and genetic structure of carbapenemase- encoding plasmids were characterized through genomic annotation and analysis.</p></sec><sec><title>Results</title><p>The results revealed the emergence of <italic>bla</italic><sub>NDM–1</sub>-carrying <italic>E. chengduensis</italic> strains in China. Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) analysis showed that all 19 <italic>E. chengduensis</italic> belonged to the same sequence type of ST414. Core SNP analysis suggested the potential intrahospital clonal transmission of ST414 <italic>E. chengduensis</italic>. The carbapenemase-encoding gene <italic>bla</italic><sub>NDM–1</sub> was harbored by an IncC-type plasmid, which was experimentally confirmed to be able to conjugate.</p></sec><sec><title>Discussion</title><p>This study reports the first emergence and potential clonal transmission of <italic>bla</italic><sub>NDM–1</sub>-carrying <italic>E. chengduensis</italic>. Further surveillance should be advocated to monitor the dissemination of carbapenem-resistant <italic>E. chengduensis</italic> and <italic>bla</italic><sub>NDM–1</sub>-harboring IncC-type plasmids in China.</p></sec>