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Characterization of Beta-lactamases in Faecal Enterobacteriaceae Recovered from Healthy Humans in Spain: Focusing on AmpC Polymorphisms

  • Environmental Microbiology
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Abstract

The intestinal tract is a huge reservoir of Enterobacteriaceae, some of which are opportunist pathogens. Several genera of these bacteria harbour intrinsic antibiotic resistance genes, such as ampC genes in species of Citrobacter, Enterobacter or Escherichia genera. In this work, beta-lactamases and other resistance mechanisms have been characterized in Enterobacteriaceae isolates recovered from healthy human faecal samples, focusing on the ampC beta-lactamase genes. Fifty human faecal samples were obtained, and 70 Enterobacteriaceae bacteria were isolated: 44 Escherichia coli, 4 Citrobacter braakii, 9 Citrobacter freundii, 8 Enterobacter cloacae, 1 Proteus mirabilis, 1 Proteus vulgaris, 1 Klebsiella oxytoca, 1 Serratia sp. and 1 Cronobacter sp. A high percentage of resistance to ampicillin was detected (57 %), observing the AmpC phenotype in 22 isolates (31 %) and the ESBL phenotype in 3 isolates. AmpC molecular characterization showed high diversity into bla CMY and bla ACT genes from Citrobacter and Enterobacter species, respectively, and the pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) analysis demonstrated low clonality among them. The prevalence of people colonized by strains carrying plasmid-mediated ampC genes obtained in this study was 2 %. The unique plasmid-mediated bla AmpC identified in this study was the bla CMY-2 gene, detected in an E. coli isolate ascribed to the sequence type ST405 which belonged to phylogenetic group D. The hybridization and conjugation experiments demonstrated that the ISEcp1-bla CMY-2-blc structure was carried by a ~78-kb self-transferable IncK plasmid. This study shows a high polymorphism among beta-lactamase genes in Enterobacteriaceae from healthy people microbiota. Extensive AmpC-carrier studies would provide important information and could allow the anticipation of future global health problems.

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Acknowledgments

During the time this study was carried out, N. Porres-Osante had a predoctoral fellowship from Instituto de Salud Carlos III (FI09/00466) and S. Somalo a contract associated with project SAF2009-08570 from the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad of Spain. This work was partially supported by the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad of Spain (project SAF2012-35474) and Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) and the Instituto de Salud Carlos III of Spain (project FIS PI12/01276).

Part of this study was presented at the XV Congreso de la Sociedad Española de Enfermedades Infecciosas (SEIMC) (P701, Málaga, Spain, 1–4 June 2011).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Área de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular, Universidad de La Rioja, Logroño, Spain

    Nerea Porres-Osante, Sergio Somalo & Carmen Torres

  2. Área de Microbiología Molecular, Centro de Investigación Biomédica de La Rioja (CIBIR), C/ Piqueras 98, 3ª planta, 26006, Logroño, Spain

    Nerea Porres-Osante, Yolanda Sáenz & Carmen Torres

Authors
  1. Nerea Porres-Osante
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  2. Yolanda Sáenz
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  3. Sergio Somalo
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  4. Carmen Torres
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Correspondence to Yolanda Sáenz.

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Porres-Osante, N., Sáenz, Y., Somalo, S. et al. Characterization of Beta-lactamases in Faecal Enterobacteriaceae Recovered from Healthy Humans in Spain: Focusing on AmpC Polymorphisms. Microb Ecol 70, 132–140 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-014-0544-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-014-0544-9

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