Emergence of an Australian-like pstS-null vancomycin resistant Enterococcus faecium clone in Scotland.

ABSTRACT: Multi-locus sequencing typing (MLST) is widely used to monitor the phylogeny of microbial outbreaks. However, several strains of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (VREfm) with a missing MLST locus (pstS) have recently emerged in Australia, with a few cases also reported in England. Here, we identified similarly distinct strains circulating in two neighbouring hospitals in Scotland. Whole genome sequencing of five VREfm strains isolated from these hospitals identified four pstS-null strains in both hospitals, while the fifth was multi-locus sequence type (ST) 262, which is the first documented in the UK. All five Scottish isolates had an insertion in the tetM gene, which is associated with increased susceptibility to tetracyclines, providing no other tetracycline-resistant gene is p

SUBMITTER: Lemonidis K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6563996 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature