Evolution of Carbapenem-Resistant Serotype K1 Hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae by Acquisition of blaVIM-1-Bearing Plasmid

Ning Dong; Qiaoling Sun; Yonglu Huang; Lingbin Shu; Lianwei Ye; Rong Zhang; Sheng Chen

doi:10.1128/AAC.01056-19

Evolution of Carbapenem-Resistant Serotype K1 Hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae by Acquisition of bla_VIM-1-Bearing Plasmid

Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2019 Aug 23;63(9):e01056-19. doi: 10.1128/AAC.01056-19. Print 2019 Sep.

Authors

Ning Dong^#^{1

2}, Qiaoling Sun^#³, Yonglu Huang³, Lingbin Shu³, Lianwei Ye^{1

2}, Rong Zhang⁴, Sheng Chen^{5

2}

Affiliations

¹ Shenzhen Key Lab for Food Biological Safety Control, Food Safety and Technology Research Center, Hong Kong PolyU Shen Zhen Research Institute, Shenzhen, People's Republic of China.
² State Key Lab of Chirosciences, Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
³ Department of Clinical Laboratory, Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University, School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China.
⁴ Department of Clinical Laboratory, Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University, School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China [email protected] [email protected].
⁵ Shenzhen Key Lab for Food Biological Safety Control, Food Safety and Technology Research Center, Hong Kong PolyU Shen Zhen Research Institute, Shenzhen, People's Republic of China [email protected] [email protected].

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

We report the identification of a carbapenem-resistant, hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae (hvKp) strain which produced the carbapenemase VIM-1. Genomic analysis showed that the strain belonged to sequence type ST23 and serotype K1, a major hvKp clone, and harbored three resistance-encoding plasmids. Among them, a bla_VIM-1-bearing plasmid was found to possess a mosaic structure presumably generated by multiple gene mobilization events. This finding indicates that hvKp actively acquires mobile resistance-encoding elements, facilitating simultaneous expression of hypervirulence and carbapenem-resistance.

Keywords: Klebsiella pneumoniae; VIM; carbapenem resistance; hypervirulence.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Anti-Bacterial Agents / therapeutic use*
Bacterial Proteins / genetics
Bacterial Proteins / metabolism
Carbapenems / therapeutic use*
Genome, Bacterial
Klebsiella Infections / drug therapy*
Klebsiella pneumoniae / drug effects
Klebsiella pneumoniae / genetics
Klebsiella pneumoniae / pathogenicity*
Male
Mice
Multilocus Sequence Typing
Plasmids / genetics*
Serogroup
Virulence
Virulence Factors / genetics
beta-Lactamases / genetics
beta-Lactamases / metabolism

Substances

Anti-Bacterial Agents
Bacterial Proteins
Carbapenems
Virulence Factors
beta-Lactamases
carbapenemase