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. 2023 Apr 18;67(4):e0173722.
doi: 10.1128/aac.01737-22. Epub 2023 Mar 15.

Phenotypic and Genomic Characterization of ST133 Siderophore-Encoding Extensively Drug-Resistant Enterobacter hormaechei

Yonglu Huang #  1 , Yuchen Wu #  1 , Chang Cai  2 , Rong Zhang  1 , Gongxiang Chen  1 , Ning Dong  3   4
Affiliations

Phenotypic and Genomic Characterization of ST133 Siderophore-Encoding Extensively Drug-Resistant Enterobacter hormaechei

Yonglu Huang et al. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. .

Abstract

We identified an ST133 extensively drug-resistant Enterobacter hormaechei, C210017, with increased virulence in the Galleria mellonella infection model. Genomic analysis suggested it carried antibiotic resistance genes blaKPC-2 and mcr-9.1, and genes iutAiucABCD and iroBCDEN encoding the virulence factor, siderophores. Comparative genomics of C210017 and the 178 ST133 E. hormaechei strains in the database suggested they all belonged to serotype O3 and most strains (77.5%) carried the IncHI2 superplasmids associated with the resistance, virulence, and adaptation of the host strain.

Keywords: Enterobacter hormaechei; ST133; blaKPC-2; extensive drug resistance; genomic characterization; hypervirulence; increased virulence; mcr-9; siderophore.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

FIG 1
FIG 1
Virulence potential of the Enterobacter hormaechei strain C210017 in the G. mellonella infection model. Survival rates of G. mellonella (24 larvae in each group) infected with 1 × 106 CFU of indicated isolates were shown by the Kaplan-Meier curve. The ST484 E. hormaechei strain C210020 was used as a control of hypervirulence and the ST113 E. hormaechei strain C210202 was used as the hypovirulence control strain.
FIG 2
FIG 2
Genetic contents of plasmid pC210017_mcr in E. hormaechei strain C210017. (A) Map of plasmid pC210017_mcr. pC210017_mcr was aligned with plasmids with similar backbone in the NCBI database, including pK710429_2 (CP073658), p12795_1 (CP083854), p3846_IncHI2_mcr (CP052871), and p154_1 (CP038654). Antimicrobial resistance genes, plasmid replicons, and some mobile elements were labeled on the outermost circle. (B) Genetic context of mcr-9.1 aligned to the homologous region in plasmid pMRVIM0813 (KP975077). Red, green, and yellow arrows indicate antimicrobial resistance genes, mobile elements, and other functional genes, respectively.
FIG 3
FIG 3
Genetic contents of plasmid pC210017_KPC in E. hormaechei strain C210017. (A) Map of plasmid pC210017_KPC. pC210017_KPC was aligned with plasmids with similar backbone in the NCBI database, including pCRKP-5-KPC (KX928751), pEC258-3 (CP097098), pECN580 (KF914891), pNB05-KPC-2 (CP091849), pNB5_KPC-2 (CP092655), and pSZN_KPC (MH917123). Antimicrobial resistance genes, plasmid replicons and some mobile elements were labeled on the outermost circle. (B) Genetic context of blaKPC-2 aligned to the homologous region in plasmid pKP46_1_KPC (CP090127). Red, green, and yellow arrows indicate antimicrobial resistance genes, mobile elements and other functional genes, respectively.
FIG 4
FIG 4
Phylogenetic analysis of ST133 E. hormaechei. Branch lengths were ignored to optimize the tree. The four clades defined by fastbaps were labeled with different colors of branches. The circles bordering the phylogenetic tree include source of isolation, carriage of antimicrobial resistance genes and the presence of IncHI2 plasmids among these ST133 E. hormaechei. the Resistance genes were blaACT, blaCTX, blaDHA, blaIMP, blaKPC, blaNDM, blaOXA, blaSHV-12, blaTEM-1B, blaVEB-3, blaVIM-1, and mcr-9 from the innermost to the outermost circle.
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