Transferable Capacity for Gastrointestinal Colonization in Enterococcus faecium in a Mouse Model

• Published in: The Journal of infectious diseases Vol. 199; no. 3; pp. 342 - 349
• Main Authors: Rice, Loius B., Laktičova, Viera, Carias, Lenore L., Rudin, Susan, Hutton, Rebecca, Marshall, Steven H.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford The University of Chicago Press 01.02.2009; University of Chicago Press; Oxford University Press
• Subjects: Animals; Anti-Bacterial Agents - pharmacology; Antibiotic resistance; Antibiotics; Bacteria; Bacterial colonization; Bacterial Proteins - genetics; Bacterial Proteins - metabolism; Bacteriology; Biological and medical sciences; Disease Models, Animal; Drug Resistance, Bacterial - genetics; Enterococcus faecium; Enterococcus faecium - drug effects; Enterococcus faecium - genetics; Enterococcus faecium - physiology; Feces; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Gastrointestinal Diseases - microbiology; Gastrointestinal tract; Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; Gene Transfer, Horizontal; Genes, Bacterial; Gram-Positive Bacterial Infections - microbiology; Infectious diseases; Inoculum; Medical sciences; Mice; Microbial colonization; Microbial Sensitivity Tests; Microbiology; Miscellaneous; Plasmids; Selection, Genetic; Vancomycin - pharmacology; Infection; Streptococcaceae; Enterococcus faecium; Animal model; Lactic acid bacteria; Microbiology; Bacteria; Micrococcales
• ISSN: 0022-1899; 1537-6613
• DOI: 10.1086/595986

A high level of gastrointestinal colonization frequently precedes invasive infection due to Enterococcus faecium. Factors other than antimicrobial resistance that promote gastrointestinal colonization by E. faecium have not been identified. We tested the ability of a colonization-proficient clinical E. faecium isolate (C68) to transfer colonizing ability to noncolonizing E. faecium recipient strains. Transconjugants derived from matings that used E. faecium D344SRF as a recipient strain colonized mouse gastrointestinal tracts in high numbers under selective pressure from clindamycin or vancomycin, compared with control strains that lackedDNAtransferred from C68. We transferred DNA into a second recipient strain (E. faecium GE-1), which also colonized mice in significantly greater numbers under selective pressure from clindamycin, compared with a control strain. These results indicate that E. faecium clinical isolates express transmissible factors other than antimicrobial resistance that promote colonization of the mouse gastrointestinal tract.