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A conjugative plasmid that augments virulence in Klebsiella pneumoniae

Xuemei Yang1, Edward Wai-Chi Chan1, Rong Zhang2

  • 1State Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery, Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Hong Kong.

Nature Microbiology
|October 2, 2019
PubMed

Insights

A novel plasmid, p15WZ-82_Vir, carrying virulence genes was discovered. This plasmid can transfer to carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella, spreading both resistance and hypervirulence traits among bacteria.

Area of Science:

  • Microbiology
  • Genetics
  • Molecular Biology

Background:

  • The emergence of antibiotic resistance and bacterial hypervirulence poses a significant threat to public health.
  • Klebsiella species are important Gram-negative pathogens, and understanding their virulence and resistance mechanisms is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To characterize a novel plasmid, p15WZ-82_Vir, identified in a clinical Klebsiella variicola isolate.
  • To investigate the potential of this plasmid to transfer virulence and carbapenem resistance traits to other Klebsiella strains.

Main Methods:

  • Plasmid recovery and characterization from a clinical isolate.
  • Conjugation experiments to transfer the plasmid to recipient strains.
  • Phenotypic analysis of recipient strains for virulence and carbapenem resistance.

Main Results:

  • A novel plasmid, p15WZ-82_Vir, was recovered, resulting from the integration of a hypervirulence plasmid fragment into a conjugative plasmid.
  • p15WZ-82_Vir was successfully conjugated to carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella strains.
  • Transconjugant strains simultaneously expressed carbapenem resistance and hypervirulence phenotypes.

Conclusions:

  • The novel plasmid p15WZ-82_Vir facilitates the co-dissemination of carbapenem resistance and hypervirulence traits.
  • This plasmid has the potential to accelerate the spread of virulence factors among Gram-negative bacterial pathogens.
  • Understanding such mobile genetic elements is critical for combating the rise of multidrug-resistant and hypervirulent bacteria.

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