Abstract
Environmental microbes harbor an enormous pool of antibiotic and biocide resistance genes that can impact the resistance profiles of animal and human pathogens via horizontal gene transfer. Pseudomonas putida strains are ubiquitous in soil and water but have been seldom isolated from humans. We have established a collection of P. putida strains isolated from in-patients in different hospitals in France. One of the isolated strains (HB3267) kills insects and is resistant to the majority of the antibiotics used in laboratories and hospitals, including aminoglycosides, ß-lactams, cationic peptides, chromoprotein enediyne antibiotics, dihydrofolate reductase inhibitors, fluoroquinolones and quinolones, glycopeptide antibiotics, macrolides, polyketides and sulfonamides. Similar to other P. putida clinical isolates the strain was sensitive to amikacin. To shed light on the broad pattern of antibiotic resistance, which is rarely found in clinical isolates of this species, the genome of this strain was sequenced and analysed. The study revealed that the determinants of multiple resistance are both chromosomally-borne as well as located on the pPC9 plasmid. Further analysis indicated that pPC9 has recruited antibiotic and biocide resistance genes from environmental microorganisms as well as from opportunistic and true human pathogens. The pPC9 plasmid is not self-transmissible, but can be mobilized by other bacterial plasmids making it capable of spreading antibiotic resistant determinants to new hosts.
Highlights
Human disease outbreaks are increasing at an alarming rate
The analysis revealed that a number of genes involved in multi-drug resistant phenotypes are located in a non-self-transmissible plasmid that was shown to be an efficient vehicle for spreading antibiotic resistance between different Pseudomonas strains
Since P. putida strains are seldom isolated from humans a series of molecular analysis were carried out to unequivocally assign this strain to the putida species
Summary
Human disease outbreaks are increasing at an alarming rate. One of the most recent and serious occurred in Germany, involving a Stx2a-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) strain of serotype O104:H4 that caused more than 4000 cases of illness and 50 deaths. Disk inhibition and MIC assays were performed with the most frequently used laboratory/clinical antibiotics to obtain quantitative data; for comparison we used P. putida KT2440R, a well characterized strain as a control (Table 1).
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
