Insertion sequence-driven diversification creates a globally dispersed emerging multiresistant subspecies of E. faecium.

ABSTRACT: Enterococcus faecium, an ubiquous colonizer of humans and animals, has evolved in the last 15 years from an avirulent commensal to the third most frequently isolated nosocomial pathogen among intensive care unit patients in the United States. E. faecium combines multidrug resistance with the potential of horizontal resistance gene transfer to even more pathogenic bacteria. Little is known about the evolution and virulence of E. faecium, and genomic studies are hampered by the absence of a completely annotated genome sequence. To further unravel its evolution, we used a mixed whole-genome microarray and hybridized 97 E. faecium isolates from different backgrounds (hospital outbreaks (n = 18), documented infections (n = 34) and asymptomatic carriage of hospitalized patients (n = 15), and hea

SUBMITTER: Leavis HL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1781477 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature