Trimethoprim resistance in urinary pathogens in northern Scotland: epidemic spread of a resistance plasmid encoding the type Ib trimethoprim-resistant dihydrofolate reductase

Abstract

The prevalence of trimethoprim resistance in enterobacterial urinary pathogens from hospitalised patients in the Angus district of northern Scotland (22.8%) was twice that found in similar isolates from patients attending general practitioners (11.2%). Thirty-three of the 143 trimethoprim-resistant strains were shown to harbour transferable plasmids conferring high-level trimethoprim resistance. In total, 17 different plasmid types were distinguished. Two plasmids, pUK1184 and pUK1185, accounted for 36% of the trimethoprim resistance plasmids and were shown by restriction endonuclease digestion fingerprints to be closely related to plasmid pUK28, previously demonstrated to be endemic in urinary pathogens in the Edinburgh area. Only 21% of the plasmids were shown to encode the type Ia trimethoprim-resistant dihydrofolate reductase, whereas 70% of the trimethoprim resistance plasmids were found to encode the type Ib dihydrofolate reductase. Hybridisation of the trimethoprim resistance plasmids identified in this study with gene probes specific for the integrase genes of transposons Tn7 and Tn21 indicates that the dhfrIa is rarely present within Tn7 or related transposons in these plasmids and may be more prevalent within Tn21-like transposons. In contrast, with the exception of the two endemic plasmids that harboured the dhfrIb gene within a Tn7-like transposon, the majority of dhfrIb genes were not found to be associated with either Tn7- or Tn21-like structures.