Large-scale WGS of carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii isolates reveals patterns of dissemination of ST clades associated with antibiotic resistance.
Sammy FrenkElizabeth TemkinMor N Lurie-WeinbergerAlona Keren-PazReut RovNadya RakovitskyLiat WullfhartAmir NutmanGeorge L DaikosAnna SkiadaEmanuele Durante-MangoniYael Dishon BenattarRoni BittermanDafna YahavVered DaitchMariano BernardoDomenico IossaOren ZusmanLena E FribergJohan W MoutonUrsula TheuretzbacherLeonard LeiboviciYuval GeffenRina GershonMical PaulYehuda CarmeliPublished in: The Journal of antimicrobial chemotherapy (2022)
The geographical differences in CRAB populations support the theory that clonal spread of CRAB leads to endemicity in hospitals and regions. The close association between antibiotic resistance genes and clades, and between plasmids and STs, suggest that de novo creation of MDR A. baumannii is rare. The clustering of antibiotic resistance genes and plasmids that is unique to each clade/ST, and nearly uniform within clades/STs, suggests that horizontal transmission is rare but crucial to the clade's/ST's success.