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vanD and vanG-Like Gene Clusters in a Ruminococcus Species Isolated from Human Bowel Flora

Centre de Recherche en Infectiologie de l'Université Laval, CHUQ, Pavillon CHUL, Québec, Québec, Canada G1V 4G2,¹ Division de Microbiologie, Faculté de Médecine, Université Laval, Québec, Québec, Canada²

Received 3 May 2007/ Returned for modification 14 June 2007/ Accepted 20 August 2007

A vancomycin-resistant, anaerobic, gram-positive coccus containing the vanD and vanG-like genes (strain CCRI-16110) was isolated from a human fecal specimen during a hospital surveillance program to detect carriers of vancomycin-resistant enterococci. Comparison of the 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain CCRI-16110 with databases revealed a potentially novel Ruminococcus species that was most similar (<94% identity) to Clostridium and Ruminococcus species. Strain CCRI-16110 was highly resistant to vancomycin and teicoplanin (MICs of >256 µg/ml). The complete DNA sequence of the vanD cluster was most similar (98.2% identity) to that of Enterococcus faecium BM4339, containing the vanD1 allele. An intD gene with 99% identity with that of this E. faecium strain was found to be associated with the vanD gene cluster of this novel anaerobic bacterium. Strain CCRI-16110 also harbors genes encoding putative VanS_G, VanG, and VanT_G proteins displaying 56, 73.6, and 55% amino acid sequence identity, respectively, compared to the corresponding proteins encoded by the vanG1 and vanG2 operons of Enterococcus faecalis BM4518 and N03-0233. This study reports for the first time an anaerobic bacterium containing the vanD gene cluster. This strain also harbors a partial vanG-like gene cluster. The presence of vanD- and vanG-containing anaerobic bacteria in the human bowel flora suggests that these bacteria may serve as a reservoir for the vanD and vanG vancomycin resistance genes.

Published ahead of print on 27 August 2007.