Multicopy blaOXA-58 gene as a source of high-level resistance to carbapenems in Acinetobacter baumannii
Alessia Bertini1, Laurent Poirel, Sandrine Bernabeu
1Department of Infectious, Parasitic, Immune-Mediated Diseases, Istituto Superiore di Sanitá, Rome, Italy.
Abstract:
The mechanisms at the origin of heterogeneous carbapenem resistance levels observed among Acinetobacter baumannii isolates collected in 2005 in a large University Hospital of Rome, Italy, were investigated. These isolates were related and possessed similar plasmids carrying the carbapenem-hydrolyzing oxacillinase gene bla(OXA-58) but showed variable levels of resistance to carbapenems. Analysis of sequences surrounding the bla(OXA-58) gene showed genetic variability, with the presence in several isolates of multiple copies of the bla(OXA-58) gene; this extra copy number was likely related to an IS26-mediated transposition or recombination process.
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