Project description:The study aimed to characterize plasmids mediating carbepenem resistance in Klebsiella pneumoniae in Pretoria, South Africa. We analysed 56 K. pneumoniae isolates collected from academic hospital around Pretoria. Based on phenotypic and molecular results of these isolates, 6 representative isolates were chosen for further analysis using long reads sequencing platform. We observed multidrug resistant phenotype in all these isolates, including resistance to aminoglycosides, tetracycline, phenicol, fosfomycin, floroquinolones, and beta-lactams antibiotics. The blaOXA-48/181 and blaNDM-1/7 were manily the plasmid-mediated carbapenemases responsible for carbapenem resistance in the K. pneumoniae isolates in these academic hospitals. These carbapenemase genes were mainly associated with plasmid replicon groups IncF, IncL/M, IncA/C, and IncX3. This study showed plasmid-mediated carbapenemase spread of blaOXA and blaNDM genes mediated by conjugative plasmids in Pretoria hospitals.
Project description:The increasing resistence and/or bacterial tolerance to bactericides, such as chlorhexidine, causes worrisome public health problems. Using transcriptomical and microbiological studies, we analysed the molecular mechanisms associated with the adaptation to chlorhexidine in two carbapenemase-producing strains of Klebsiella pneumoniae belonging ST258-KPC3 and ST846-OXA48.
Project description:The increasing antibiotic resistance of Klebsiella pneumoniae poses a serious threat to global public health. To investigate the antibiotic resistance mechanism of Klebsiella pneumonia, we performed gene expression profiling analysis using RNA-seq data for clinical isolates of Klebsiella pneumonia, KPN16 and ATCC13883. Our results showed that mutant strain KPN16 is likely to act against the antibiotics through increased increased butanoate metabolism and lipopolysaccharide biosynthesis, and decreased transmembrane transport activity.