Complete sequence of a bla(KPC)-harboring cointegrate plasmid isolated from Escherichia coli

Abstract

Horizontal transfer of bla(KPC)-harboring plasmids contributes significantly to the inter- and intraspecies spread of Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase (KPC). Here we report the complete nucleotide sequence of a bla(KPC)-harboring IncFIA plasmid, pBK32533, from Escherichia coli. pBK32533 is a cointegrate plasmid comprising of a 72-kb sequence identical to that of the nonconjugative pBK30661 plasmid plus an additional 170-kb element that harbors the genes for plasmid transfer. pBK32533 demonstrates how bla(KPC) can be spread from a nonconjugative plasmid through cointegration.

FIG 1

Plasmid structures of pBK32533 (KP345882), pBK30661 (KF954759), pBK30683 (KF954760), pKPC-def (CP009776), pIncX-SHV (JN247852), and p1643_10 (KF056330). Light-blue shading denotes regions of IncFIA plasmid backbone shared among four plasmids, pBK30661, pBK30683, pKPC-def, and pBK32533. Light-gray shading denotes homologous regions acquired from other plasmids (pIncX-SHV and p1643_10). Open reading frames (ORFs) are represented by arrows and colored based on predicted gene function. Plasmid scaffold regions are indicated by orange arrows. Green arrows indicate genes associated with the tra locus, and dark blue arrows indicate replication-associated genes. Antimicrobial genes are represented by red arrows, while the accessory genes are indicated by yellow arrows. IS26 elements are indicated by light-blue arrows. The 8-bp target sequences duplicated by IS26 integration were underlined.