NOVEL SEQUENCING TYPE OF AN ENTEROBACTER CLOACAE COMPLEX STRAIN WITH THE POTENTIAL TO BECOME A HIGH-RISK CLONE

C. KNECHT; A. LEGUINA; A. GAMBINO; N. GARCÍA ALLENDE; V. ÁLVAREZ; B. PRACK MC CORMICK; M. MASSÓ; A. GONZALES MACHUCA; C. VARGAS ; T. AYALA NÚÑEZ;; L. CARRERA PÁEZ ; M. PIEKAR; J. CAMPOS ; B. FOX; G. CAMICIA ; F. ALONSO; N. DONIS; L. FERNÁNDEZ CANIGIA; D. CENTRÓN; M. QUIROGA

Virtual

Congreso; Microbiological adaptation in times of ecological disturbance and disruption; 2022

International Union of Microbiological Societies

Background and Aims Carbapenem resistant Enterobacterales (CRE) belong to the highest priority group of the WHO. In particular, Enterobacter cloacae complex (ECC) has lately awoken interest due to their increasing resistance tocarbapenems codified by several genes all over the globe. Outbreaks of ECC are particularly dangerous for children and newborns, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Even though there are some sequencetypes (ST) which represent high-risk clones, there is a substantial clonal diversity in the ECC.Methods Here, we analyzed the genome of a CRE multidrug resistant (MDR) ECC strain isolated from urine from a patient in a hospital in Argentina. The whole-genome sequencing was done by Illumina MiSeq-I. The genomewas assembled with SPAdes 3.9.0, and annotated with PROKKA, RAST and Blast. Plasmids were identified with PlasmidFinder. Antibiotic resistance genes were detected using RESfinder, CARD and Blastn. ST were identified with pubMLST.Results No ST could be assigned because the pyrG gene could not be classified as any known allele. All other alleles of the genes used for the multilocus sequence typing (MLST) of ECC were the same as for ST66, which is ahigh-risk clone. We found multiple metal and antibiotic resistance genes including the carbapenem resistance gene bla KPC-2 , several plasmids and secretion system VI, which can favor the prevalence of ECC strains while competing with other bacteria.Conclusions Due to its MLST almost identical to ST66, the acquired multiple resistance and the presence of the secretion systems, the potential of this strain for becoming a new high-risk clone cannot be discarded.