MgrB Inactivation Is Responsible for Acquired Resistance to Colistin in Enterobacter hormaechei subsp. steigerwaltii.

Abstract

Multidrug-resistant strains belonging to the Enterobacter cloacae complex (ECC) group, and especially those belonging to clusters C-III, C-IV, and C-VIII, have increasingly emerged as a leading cause of health care-associated infections, with colistin used as one of the last lines of treatment. However, colistin-resistant ECC strains have emerged. The aim of this study was to prove that MgrB, the negative regulator of the PhoP/PhoQ two-component regulatory system, is involved in colistin resistance in ECC of cluster C-VIII, formerly referred to as Enterobacter hormaechei subsp. steigerwaltii An in vitro mutant (Eh22-Mut) was selected from a clinical isolate of Eh22. The sequencing analysis of its mgrB gene showed the presence of one nucleotide deletion leading to the formation of a truncated protein of six instead of 47 amino acids. The wild-type mgrB gene from Eh22 and that of a clinical strain of Klebsiella pneumoniae used as controls were cloned, and the corresponding recombinant plasmids were used for complementation assays. The results showed a fully restored susceptibility to colistin and confirmed for the first time that mgrB gene expression plays a key role in acquired resistance to colistin in ECC strains.