AbaR7, a genomic resistance island found in multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii isolates in Daejeon, Korea.
BACKGROUND
Acinetobacter baumannii resistance islands (AbaRs) have been recently recognized as mobile genetic elements that harbor multiple resistance determinants and are associated with multidrug resistance (MDR). In the present study, we aimed to determine the AbaRs conferring multiple antimicrobial resistance and their clonal relatedness to MDR A. baumannii clinical isolates obtained from a university hospital in Daejeon, Korea.


METHODS
This study included 29 MDR A. baumannii strains isolated in Daejeon, Korea. The minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) were determined by Etest. A. baumannii isolates were characterized using the 2 multiplex PCR assays and multilocus sequence typing (MLST) scheme. To detect and characterize AbaRs, PCR and PCR mapping experiments were performed.


RESULTS
Twenty-seven of the 29 isolates belonged to the European (EU) clone II lineage and contained 5 sequence types (STs) (75, 92, 137, 138, and 357). In this study, ST357 was confirmed for the first time in Korea. Only 2 of the 29 isolates belonged to the EU clone I lineage, and were confirmed as ST109. These 2 isolates harbored the 22-kb AbaR7 aacC1-orfP-orfQ-aadA1 gene cassette array. In contrast, AbaR was not found in EU clone II isolates.


CONCLUSIONS
This is the first study that attempted to determine the AbaRs in MDR A. baumannii isolates in Korea. We found 2 EU clone I isolates (ST109) that harbored AbaR7.
['Sung|Ji Youn|JY|', 'Koo|Sun Hoe|SH|', 'Cho|Hye Hyun|HH|', 'Kwon|Kye Chul|KC|']
D040981:Acinetobacter baumannii D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents D001426:Bacterial Proteins D024901:Drug Resistance, Multiple, Bacterial D006801:Humans D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests D060885:Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction D056910:Republic of Korea D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
Multidrug resistance A. baumannii PCR Multilocus sequence typing