Systematic detection of horizontal gene transfer across genera among multidrug-resistant bacteria in a single hospital.
Daniel R EvansMarissa P GriffithAlexander J SundermannKathleen A ShuttMelissa I SaulMustapha M MustaphaJane W MarshVaughn S CooperLee H HarrisonDaria Van TynePublished in: eLife (2020)
Multidrug-resistant bacteria pose a serious health threat, especially in hospitals. Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) of mobile genetic elements (MGEs) facilitates the spread of antibiotic resistance, virulence, and environmental persistence genes between nosocomial pathogens. We screened the genomes of 2173 bacterial isolates from healthcare-associated infections from a single hospital over 18 months, and identified identical nucleotide regions in bacteria belonging to distinct genera. To further resolve these shared sequences, we performed long-read sequencing on a subset of isolates and generated highly contiguous genomes. We then tracked the appearance of ten different plasmids in all 2173 genomes, and found evidence of plasmid transfer independent from bacterial transmission. Finally, we identified two instances of likely plasmid transfer within individual patients, including one plasmid that likely transferred to a second patient. This work expands our understanding of HGT in healthcare settings, and can inform efforts to limit the spread of drug-resistant pathogens in hospitals.
Keyphrases
- multidrug resistant
- healthcare
- drug resistant
- gram negative
- escherichia coli
- acinetobacter baumannii
- klebsiella pneumoniae
- genome wide
- copy number
- crispr cas
- end stage renal disease
- genome wide identification
- staphylococcus aureus
- chronic kidney disease
- antimicrobial resistance
- electron transfer
- ejection fraction
- pseudomonas aeruginosa
- public health
- case report
- emergency department
- dna methylation
- prognostic factors
- acute care
- single molecule
- peritoneal dialysis
- health information
- gene expression
- risk assessment
- social media
- label free
- transcription factor