Project description:Nineteen Proteus mirabilis isolates producing the carbapenemase OXA-23 were recovered over a 2-year period in 19 French hospitalized patients, of whom 12 had community onset infections. The isolates exhibited a slightly reduced susceptibility to carbapenems. Whole-genome analysis revealed that all 19 isolates formed a cluster compared to 149 other?P. mirabilis isolates. Because of its susceptibility to carbapenems, this clone may be misidentified as a penicillinase producer while it constitutes a reservoir of the OXA-23-encoding gene in the community.
Project description:In Enterobacterales, the most common carbapenemases are Ambler's class A (KPC-like), class B (NDM-, VIM- or IMP-like) or class D (OXA-48-like) enzymes. This study describes the characterization of twenty-four OXA-23 or OXA-58 producing-Proteus mirabilis isolates recovered from human and veterinary samples from France and Belgium. Twenty-two P. mirabilis isolates producing either OXA-23 (n?=?21) or OXA-58 (n?=?1), collected between 2013 and 2018, as well as 2 reference strains isolated in 1996 and 2015 were fully sequenced. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that 22 of the 24 isolates, including the isolate from 1996, belonged to a single lineage that has disseminated in humans and animals over a long period of time. The blaOXA-23 gene was located on the chromosome and was part of a composite transposon, Tn6703, bracketed by two copies of IS15?II. Sequencing using Pacbio long read technology of OXA-23-producing P. mirabilis VAC allowed the assembly of a 55.5-kb structure encompassing the blaOXA-23 gene in that isolate. By contrast to the blaOXA-23 genes, the blaOXA-58 gene of P. mirabilis CNR20130297 was identified on a 6-kb plasmid. The acquisition of the blaOXA-58 gene on this plasmid involved XerC-XerD recombinases. Our results suggest that a major clone of OXA-23-producing P. mirabilis is circulating in France and Belgium since 1996.
Project description:BACKGROUND:Proteus mirabilis is an important uropathogen that causes complicated Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) and induces diarrhea in infants. OBJECTIVES:This study aimed to investigate P. mirabilis infection in newly weaned infant rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) and ferrets (Mustela putorius furo) with diarrhea. MATERIALS AND METHODS:Stool samples were collected from 74 rhesus monkeys and 12 ferrets with diarrhea. Proteus mirabilis was isolated from the samples through Polymerase Chain Reaction. The isolated P. mirabilis was subjected to antimicrobial susceptibility tests. RESULTS:Seven (7/74, 9.5%) and four (4/12, 30%) P. mirabilis strains were detected in the stool samples collected from the monkeys and ferrets, respectively. Sequence analyses showed that the isolated P. mirabilis was closely related to P. mirabilis strain HI4320, which was isolated from the urine of a patient with a long-term indwelling urinary catheter. In addition, the isolates demonstrated multidrug resistance. CONCLUSIONS:Rhesus monkeys and ferrets are susceptible to P. mirabilis, making them useful as animal models for future studies on the mechanism of P. mirabilis-induced UTI and its corresponding treatment.
Project description:1. The beta-lactamase specified by the R-1818 resistance factor in Escherichia coli was purified 300-fold; the resulting preparation gave a single peak on Sephadex G-100 and a single band on polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis. 2. The beta-lactamase specified by the same R-factor in Proteus mirabilis was purified over 2000-fold, but was still far from pure. The specific activity of this preparation was one-fifth that of the purified enzyme from E. coli. 3. The two enzymes were shown to be identical as regards substrate specificity, pH optimum, K(m) values and molecular weight. 4. It is suggested that the low beta-lactamase activity of extracts of P. mirabilis (R-1818), about 5% of that from E. coli (R-1818) in crude extracts, could be due to inefficient transcription of the R-factor DNA by Proteus RNA polymerase.
Project description:We report multifocal detection (four different cities in northern Italy) of Proteus mirabilis isolates resistant to both oxyimino- and 7-alpha-methoxy-cephalosporins and producing a novel acquired AmpC-like beta-lactamase. The enzyme, named CMY-16, is a variant of the CMY/LAT lineage, which differs from the closest homologues, CMY-4 and CMY-12, by a single amino acid substitution (A171S or N363S, respectively) and from CMY-2 by two substitutions (A171S and W221R). Expression of the cloned bla(CMY-16) gene in Escherichia coli decreased susceptibility to penicillins, cephalosporins, and aztreonam. Tazobactam was more effective than clavulanate at antagonizing the enzyme activity. Genotyping, by random amplification of polymorphic DNA and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis of genomic DNA digested with SfiI, showed that isolates were clonally related to each other, although not identical. The bla(CMY-16) gene was not transferable to E. coli by conjugation or transformation. In all isolates, it was chromosomally located and inserted in a conserved genetic environment. PCR mapping experiments revealed that the bla(CMY-16) was flanked by ISEcp1 and the blc gene, similar to other genes of this lineage from plasmids of Salmonella enterica, Klebsiella spp., and E. coli. Overall, these results revealed multifocal spreading of a CMY-16-producing P. mirabilis clone in northern Italy. This finding represents the first report of an acquired AmpC-like beta-lactamase in Proteus mirabilis from Italy and underscores the emergence of similar resistance determinants in the European setting.
Project description:Tigecycline has good broad-spectrum activity against many gram-positive and gram-negative pathogens with the notable exception of the PROTEEAE: A study was performed to identify the mechanism responsible for the reduced susceptibility to tigecycline in Proteus mirabilis. Two independent transposon insertion mutants of P. mirabilis that had 16-fold-increased susceptibility to tigecycline were mapped to the acrB gene homolog of the Escherichia coli AcrRAB efflux system. Wild-type levels of decreased susceptibility to tigecycline were restored to the insertion mutants by complementation with a clone containing a PCR-derived fragment from the parental wild-type acrRAB efflux gene cluster. The AcrAB transport system appears to be associated with the intrinsic reduced susceptibility to tigecycline in P. mirabilis.
Project description:Uropathogenic Proteus mirabilis produces at least four types of fimbriae. Amino acid sequences from two peptides, derived by tryptic digestion of the structural subunit of one type of these fimbriae, the ambient-temperature fimbriae, were determined: NVVPGQPSSTQ and LIEGENQLNYNA. PCR primers, based on these sequences and that of the N terminus, were used to amplify a 359-bp fragment. A cosmid clone, isolated from a P. mirabilis genomic library by hybridization with the 359-bp PCR product, was used to determine the nucleotide sequence of the atf gene cluster. A 3,903-bp region encodes three polypeptides: AtfA, the structural subunit; AtfB, the chaperone; and AtfC, the outer membrane molecular usher. No fimbria-related genes are evident either 5' or 3' to the three contiguous genes. AtfA demonstrates significant amino acid sequence identity with type 1 major fimbrial subunits of several enteric species. The 359-bp PCR product hybridized strongly with all Proteus isolates (n = 9) and 25% of 355 Escherichia coli isolates but failed to hybridize with any of 26 isolates among nine other uropathogenic species. Ambient-temperature fimbriae of P. mirabilis may represent a novel type of fimbriae of enteric species.
Project description:Proteus mirabilis, a cause of serious urinary tract infection and acute pyelonephritis, produces several putative virulence determinants, among them, fimbriae. Principally, two fimbrial types are produced by this species: mannose-resistant/Proteus-like (MR/P) fimbriae and mannose-resistant/Klebsiella-like (MR/K) fimbriae. To isolate MR/P fimbrial gene sequences, a P. mirabilis cosmid library was screened by immunoblotting and by hybridization with an oligonucleotide probe based on the N-terminal amino acid sequence of the isolated fimbrial polypeptide, ADQGHGTVKFVGSIIDAPCS. One clone, pMRP101, reacted strongly with a monoclonal antibody specific for MR/P fimbriae and with the DNA probe. This clone hemagglutinated both tannic acid-treated and untreated chicken erythrocytes with or without 50 mM D-mannose and was shown to be fimbriated by transmission electron microscopy. A 525-bp open reading frame, designated mrpA, predicted a 175-amino-acid polypeptide including a 23-amino-acid hydrophobic leader peptide. The unprocessed and processed polypeptides are predicted to be 17,909 and 15,689 Da, respectively. The N-terminal amino acid sequence of the processed fimbrial subunit exactly matched amino acid residues 24 to 43 predicted by the mrpA nucleotide sequence. The MrpA polypeptide shares 57% amino acid sequence identity with SmfA, the major fimbrial subunit of Serratia marcescens mannose-resistant fimbriae.
Project description:Proteus, Providencia, and Morganella species produce deaminases that generate alpha-keto acids from amino acids. The alpha-keto acid products are detected by the formation of colored iron complexes, raising the possibility that the enzyme functions to secure iron for these species, which do not produce traditional siderophores. A gene encoding an amino acid deaminase of uropathogenic Proteus mirabilis was identified by screening a genomic library hosted in Escherichia coli DH5 alpha for amino acid deaminase activity. The deaminase gene, localized on a cosmid clone by subcloning and Tn5::751 mutagenesis, was subjected to nucleotide sequencing. A single open reading frame, designated aad (amino acid deaminase), which appears to be both necessary and sufficient for deaminase activity, predicts a 473-amino-acid polypeptide (51,151 Da) encoded within an area mapped by transposon mutagenesis. The predicted amino acid sequence of Aad did not share significant amino acid sequence similarity with any other polypeptide in the PIR or SwissProt database. Amino acid deaminase activity in both P. mirabilis and E. coli transformed with aad-encoding plasmids was not affected by medium iron concentration or expression of genes in multicopy in fur, cya, or crp E. coli backgrounds. Enzyme expression was negatively affected by growth with glucose or glycerol as the sole carbon source but was not consistent with catabolite repression.
Project description:SXT/R391 integrative and conjugative elements (ICEs) were detected in 8 out of 125 Proteus mirabilis isolates from food-producing animals in China. Whole-genome sequencing revealed that seven ICEs were identical to ICEPmiJpn1, carrying the cephalosporinase gene blaCMY-2. Another one, designated ICEPmiChn1, carried five resistance genes. All eight ICEs could be transferred to Escherichia coli via conjugation. The results highlight the idea that animal farms are important reservoir of the SXT/R391 ICE-containing P. mirabilis.