AAC
Home Help [Feedback] [For Subscribers] [Archive] [Search] [Contents]
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Copyright Information
Right arrow Books from ASM Press
Right arrow MicrobeWorld
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Riccio, M. L.
Right arrow Articles by Rossolini, G. M.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Riccio, M. L.
Right arrow Articles by Rossolini, G. M.

Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, April 2001, p. 1249-1253, Vol. 45, No. 4
0066-4804/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/AAC.45.4.1249-1253.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

In70 of Plasmid pAX22, a blaVIM-1-Containing Integron Carrying a New Aminoglycoside Phosphotransferase Gene Cassette

Maria Letizia Riccio,1 Lucia Pallecchi,1 Roberta Fontana,2 and Gian Maria Rossolini1,*

Dipartimento di Biologia Molecolare, Sezione di Microbiologia, Università di Siena, I-53100 Siena,1 and Dipartimento di Patologia, Sezione di Microbiologia, Università di Verona, I-37134 Verona,2 Italy

Received 7 August 2000/Returned for modification 18 December 2000/Accepted 26 January 2001

An Achromobacter xylosoxydans strain showing broad-spectrum resistance to beta -lactams (including carbapenems) and aminoglycosides was isolated at the University Hospital of Verona (Verona, Italy). This strain was found to produce metallo-beta -lactamase activity and to harbor a 30-kb nonconjugative plasmid, named pAX22, carrying a blaVIM-1 determinant inserted into a class 1 integron. Characterization of this integron, named In70, revealed an original array of four gene cassettes containing, respectively, the blaVIM-1 gene and three different aminoglycoside resistance determinants, including an aacA4 allele, a new aph-like gene named aphA15, and an aadA1 allele. The aphA15 gene is the first example of an aph-like gene carried on a mobile gene cassette, and its product exhibits close similarity to the APH(3')-IIa aminoglycoside phosphotransferase encoded by Tn5 (36% amino acid identity) and to an APH(3')-IIb enzyme from Pseudomonas aeruginosa (38% amino acid identity). Expression of the cloned aphA15 gene in Escherichia coli reduced the susceptibility to kanamycin and neomycin as well as (slightly) to amikacin, netilmicin, and streptomycin. Characterization of the 5' and 3' conserved segments of In70 and of their flanking regions showed that In70 belongs to the group of class 1 integrons associated with defective transposon derivatives originating from Tn402-like elements. The structure of the 3' conserved segment indicates the closest ancestry with members of the In0-In2 lineage. In70, with its array of cassette-borne resistance genes, can mediate broad-spectrum resistance to most beta -lactams and aminoglycosides.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Dipartimento di Biologia Molecolare, Sezione di Microbiologia, Università di Siena, Via Laterina, 8, 53100 Siena, Italy. Phone: 39 0577 233327. Fax: 39 0577 233325. E-mail: rossolini{at}unisi.it.

Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, April 2001, p. 1249-1253, Vol. 45, No. 4
0066-4804/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/AAC.45.4.1249-1253.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


This article has been cited by other articles:



Home Help [Feedback] [For Subscribers] [Archive] [Search] [Contents]
Clin. Vaccine Immunol. Clin. Microbiol. Rev.
J. Clin. Microbiol. ALL ASM JOURNALS

Copyright © 2001 by the American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.