Plasmid diversity among genetically related Klebsiella pneumoniae blaKPC-2 and blaKPC-3 isolates collected in the Dutch national surveillance

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 10; no. 1; p. 16778
• Main Authors: Hendrickx, Antoni P. A., Landman, Fabian, de Haan, Angela, Borst, Dyogo, Witteveen, Sandra, van Santen-Verheuvel, Marga G., van der Heide, Han G. J., Schouls, Leo M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 08.10.2020
• Subjects: 631/114; 631/326; Humanities and Social Sciences; multidisciplinary; Science; Science (multidisciplinary)
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-73440-2

Carbapenemase-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae emerged as a nosocomial pathogen causing morbidity and mortality in patients. For infection prevention it is important to track the spread of K. pneumoniae and its plasmids between patients. Therefore, the major aim was to recapitulate the contents and diversity of the plasmids of genetically related K. pneumoniae strains harboring the beta-lactamase gene bla KPC-2 or bla KPC-3 to determine their dissemination in the Netherlands and the former Dutch Caribbean islands from 2014 to 2019. Next-generation sequencing was combined with long-read third-generation sequencing to reconstruct 22 plasmids. wgMLST revealed five genetic clusters comprised of K. pneumoniae bla KPC-2 isolates and four clusters consisted of bla KPC-3 isolates. KpnCluster-019 bla KPC-2 isolates were found both in the Netherlands and the Caribbean islands, while bla KPC-3 cluster isolates only in the Netherlands. Each K. pneumoniae bla KPC-2 or bla KPC-3 cluster was characterized by a distinct resistome and plasmidome. However, the large and medium plasmids contained a variety of antibiotic resistance genes, conjugation machinery, cation transport systems, transposons, toxin/antitoxins, insertion sequences and prophage-related elements. The small plasmids carried genes implicated in virulence. Thus, implementing long-read plasmid sequencing analysis for K. pneumoniae surveillance provided important insights in the transmission of a KpnCluster-019 bla KPC-2 strain between the Netherlands and the Caribbean.