Antibiotic Resistance and Virulence Determinants of Isolates Cultured from Hydrocarbon-Contaminated Environmental Samples.

Crude oil and its derivates are among the most important environmental pollutants, where strains producing AlkB1 and AlkB2 alkane hydroxylases are often involved in their biodegradation. The aim of this study was to analyze antibiotic resistance and virulence determinants of a isolate cultured from a hydrocarbon-contaminated soil sample from Ogoniland, Nigeria, and to compare its characteristics with isolates cultured worldwide from hydrocarbon-contaminated environments or from clinical samples. Using the ResFinder reference database, a chloramphenicol acetyltransferase gene, an -type PDC β-lactamase gene, and an OXA-50 type β-lactamase gene were identified in all strains analyzed in this study. In some of these strains, loss-of-function mutations were detected in the regulatory genes , , or , predicting an efflux-mediated acquired antibiotic-resistance mechanism. Several sequence types that were associated with oil-contaminated environments have also been cultured from human clinical samples worldwide, including sequence types ST532, ST267, ST244, and ST1503. Our findings also indicate that environmental may serve as the source of human infections, warranting further studies from a One Health perspective about the application of for the in situ bioremediation of hydrocarbon-contaminated sites.