Abstract

This work will look at two factors that add to the diversity of carbapenem resistant bacteria. First, it focuses on the diversity of carbapenemase resistance plasmids. 446 plasmids were characterized by size, gene content and replicon groups. We identified that on average, over 30% of the encoded proteins on each plasmid have an unknown function. Plasmid sizes ranged from 1.6kb to 500kb, with an average of around 100kb and median of 80kb. Additionally, six replicon groups account for 80% of all the carbapenemase resistance plasmids. We also highlight the lack of data available for carbapenemase carrying plasmids from bacterial genera other than Escherichia and Klebsiella, and plasmids that carry the New Delhi metallo-β- lactamase or the Verona-integron encoded metallo-β-lactamase. Second, we characterized the β-lactamase diversity of a single carbapenemase resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae. This isolate encodes six distinct β-lactamases, all of which are functional, and three of which are redundant. Additionally, we determined that the CTX-M-15 cephalosporinase imparts a greater fitness when grown in aztreonam (a monobactam) than ceftazidime (a cephalosporin). Finally, we show that individually, these β-lactamases do not account for the elevated levels of resistance seen in the parent strain, indicating that the passive resistance mechanisms (i.e. efflux pumps, altered membrane porins) may play a larger role than originally thought.

Degree

College and Department

Life Sciences; Microbiology and Molecular Biology

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