Avoidance of false PCR results with the integron–retron junction in multiple antibiotic resistant Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium

Abstract

Salmonella infections continue to cause gastrointestinal and systemic disease throughout the world. Another concern with this pathogen is the ability to acquire integrons that confer resistance to multiple antibiotics. For multiresistant Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium, the most common multiresistant Salmonella serotype, an integron structure can be found between thdF and a retron. Our objective was to investigate the utility of a 450 bp thdF-retron amplicon as an indicator of an insertless thdF-retron junction thus indicating an integron-free strain. Surprisingly, we found that the 450 bp thdF-retron amplicon was present, and thus incorrectly suggesting an integron-free status, in some multiresistant S. enterica serotype Typhimurium isolates. However, this phenomenon was not observed if the isolate was enriched in the presence of two antibiotics. This demonstrates that, within some individual clinical isolates of multiresistant S. enterica serotype Typhimurium, there exists a small subpopulation of integron-free bacteria. Consequently, it appears that the thdF-retron amplicon is an inaccurate predictor of integron status in S. enterica serotype Typhimurium unless multiresistance is used as a selection tool during enrichment.