| Abstract [eng] |
The prevalence and nature of elements responsible for antibiotic resistance-associated genes transmission among Gram negative bacteria in clinical and agricultural environments in Lithuania is largely unknown. Herein, molecular epidemiology study of 859 Gram negative bacterial isolates from Lithuanian hospitals and farms mostly focusing on the characteristics of antibiotic resistance-associated transferable elements – integrons and plasmids, is presented. Three novel gene cassette arrays of class 1 integron were elucidated, among them gene coding for a new OXA-type β-lactamase, OXA-205, was determined. Certain integron types between isolates from different sources suggested the possibility for horizontal transfer of antibiotic resistance genes. The analysis of genotyping results revealed that majority of A. baumannii isolates from all hospitals belonged to European clonal lineages I and II. Clonal spread of ECII strains with a newly observed plasmid pAB120 carrying two copies of OXA-72 carbapenemase coding gene was largely responsible for a dramatic increase in the rate of carbapenem resistant A. baumannii in the country tertiary care hospitals. The abundance of XerC/XerD recognition sites in pAB120 suggested that Xer recombination might play an important role in the rearrangement of plasmids via common genetic platforms. The genetic data obtained in this work could serve as a basis for the further monitoring of the dissemination of antibiotic resistance elements. |
