Mores Carine R, Montelongo Cesar, Putonti Catherine, Wolfe Alan J, Abouelfetouh Alaa
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Stritch School of Medicine, Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States.
Bioinformatics Program, Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States.
Front Microbiol. 2021 Jun 4;12:659116. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2021.659116. eCollection 2021.
Staphylococci can cause a wide array of infections that can be life threatening. These infections become more deadly when the isolates are antibiotic resistant and thus harder to treat. Many resistance determinants are plasmid-mediated; however, staphylococcal plasmids have not yet been fully characterized. In particular, plasmids and their contributions to antibiotic resistance have not been investigated within the Arab states, where antibiotic use is not universally regulated. Here, we characterized the putative plasmid content among 56 and 10 clinical isolates from Alexandria, Egypt. Putative plasmid sequences were detected in over half of our collection. In total, we identified 72 putative plasmid sequences in 27 and 1 isolates. While these isolates typically carried one or two plasmids, we identified one isolate- AA53-with 11 putative plasmids. The plasmid sequences most frequently encoded a Rep_1, RepL, or PriCT_1 type replication protein. As expected, antibiotic resistance genes were widespread among the identified plasmid sequences. Related plasmids were identified amongst our clinical isolates; homologous plasmids present in multiple isolates clustered into 11 groups based upon sequence similarity. Plasmids from the same cluster often shared antibiotic resistance genes, including , which is associated with β-lactam resistance. Our analyses suggest that plasmids are a key factor in the pathology and epidemiology of in Egypt. A better characterization of plasmids and the role they contribute to the success of Staphylococci as pathogens will guide the design of effective control strategies to limit their spread.
葡萄球菌可引发一系列危及生命的感染。当分离株具有抗生素抗性因而更难治疗时，这些感染会变得更加致命。许多抗性决定因素是由质粒介导的；然而，葡萄球菌质粒尚未得到充分表征。特别是在抗生素使用未得到普遍监管的阿拉伯国家，尚未对质粒及其对抗生素抗性的影响进行研究。在此，我们对来自埃及亚历山大的56株和10株临床分离株中的推定质粒含量进行了表征。在我们收集的样本中，超过一半检测到了推定质粒序列。我们总共在27株和1株分离株中鉴定出72个推定质粒序列。虽然这些分离株通常携带一两个质粒，但我们鉴定出一株分离株——AA53——带有11个推定质粒。质粒序列最常编码Rep_1、RepL或PriCT_1型复制蛋白。正如预期的那样，抗生素抗性基因在已鉴定的质粒序列中广泛存在。在我们的临床分离株中鉴定出了相关质粒；根据序列相似性，多个分离株中存在的同源质粒聚为11组。同一簇中的质粒通常共享抗生素抗性基因，包括与β-内酰胺抗性相关的基因。我们的分析表明，质粒是埃及葡萄球菌病理学和流行病学中的一个关键因素。对质粒及其作为病原体对葡萄球菌成功所起作用的更好表征，将指导设计有效的控制策略以限制其传播。
