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Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, May 2005, p. 1927-1931, Vol. 49, No. 5
0066-4804/05/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/AAC.49.5.1927-1931.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
School of Molecular and Microbial Sciences, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia,1 Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries, Animal Research Institute, Yeerongpilly, Australia2
Received 9 June 2004/ Returned for modification 17 August 2004/ Accepted 19 January 2005
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The use of antibiotics in animal production as treatment or prophylaxis against common infections or at subtherapeutic levels in feed to promote growth is under increasing scrutiny (11). Tetracycline has a long history of use in the swine industry (17), and its use generates a strong selective pressure that has resulted in the exchange of tetracycline resistance genes associated with plasmids or transposons within and between bacterial species (13). Tetracycline resistance determinants Tet B, Tet H, and Tet M have previously been found in other members of the Pasteurellaceae (7, 9). Tetracycline-resistant isolates of H. parasuis have previously been reported in Austria (15) and Denmark (1) although the mechanism of this resistance has not been elucidated.
In this study, we have identified and sequenced two native H. parasuis plasmids, one of which encoded the Tet B tetracycline resistance determinant. A survey of tetracycline resistance was undertaken in 45 H. parasuis strains, identifying tet(B) plasmid-mediated tetracycline resistance in two additional H. parasuis strains. One of these tetracycline-resistant field isolates was isolated from a disease outbreak involving both H. parasuis and Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae. Tetracycline resistance determinant tet(B) was identified in an A. pleuropneumonie and a further H. parasuis isolate from this outbreak.
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TABLE 2. Tetracycline resistance of bacterial strains used in this study
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DNA sequencing, analysis, and annotation of plasmids. DNA fragments from a midi-prep (QIAGEN) isolation of plasmids derived from strain HS1543 digested with either Sau3A (cloned fragment sizes, 0.3 and 0.6 kb) or MspI (cloned fragment sizes, 1.0 and 1.6 kb) were cloned into pUC19 digested with BamHI or AccI, respectively, and sequenced using universal M13 forward and reverse primers. Oligonucleotides were designed at the ends of the cloned fragments. Purified plasmid DNA from strain HS1543 was used as a template in subsequent sequencing reactions. After each round of sequencing, new primers were designed until a complete double-stranded sequence of the plasmid was obtained. ABI Prism BigDye Terminator version 3.1 (PE Applied Biosystems) was used for DNA sequencing. Following EDTA/ethanol precipitation, samples were sent to the Australian Genome Research Facility for automated sequencing using an ABI 3730xl 96-capillary automatic sequencer (PE Applied Biosystems).
Sequence data were aligned and annotated using MacVector version 7.2 (Accelrys). Open reading frames (ORFs) were identified using MacVector, and gene identities were assigned using searches against the nucleotide and protein databases at the National Center for Biotechnology Information using the tBLAST-n algorithm (2). Similarity between ORFs was calculated using BLAST analysis of two sequences with filters off.
Electroporation of pHS-Tet into H. parasuis, H. paragallinarum, H. influenzae strain Rd, and E. coli. pHS-Tet was isolated from strain HS1543 using a QIAGEN midi-prep kit. H. paragallinarum strains 221 and HP31 and H. parasuis strains HS19 and HS29 were grown to an optical density at 600 nm of 0.5 in TMB medium, washed three times with sucrose/glycerol (SG) buffer (15% [vol/vol] glycerol, 272 mM sucrose), and resuspended in a final volume of 0.5 ml of SG buffer. H. influenzae strain Rd was heavily inoculated onto 10 brain heart infusion (BHI) plates, harvested into 50 ml of SG buffer and washed as described above. Cells (100 µl) were mixed with 10 µg of pHS-Tet DNA. After electroporation (Bio-Rad micropulser electroporator, 2.5 kV, 0.2-cm cuvettes), cells were suspended in 1 ml of TMB (H. parasuis and H. paragallinarum) medium or BHI broth supplemented with 10 µg/ml Hemin and 2 µg/ml NAD (H. influenzae) and grown for 1 h at 37°C before plating on TM/SN (H. parasuis and H. paragallinarum) or BHI (H. influenzae) plates supplemented with 5 µg/ml tetracycline and incubated overnight at 37°C with 5% CO2. Tetracycline-resistant colonies were inoculated into appropriate liquid media and grown overnight, and plasmid DNA was isolated using a mini-prep kit. Restriction digests using AccI and ClaI confirmed the presence of pHS-Tet.
One microgram of plasmid pHS-Tet isolated from an H. parasuis HS19/pHS-Tet transformant was electroporated in E. coli strain XL1-Blue MR as described above. Cells were resuspended in 1 ml of LB broth and incubated for 1 h at 37°C with shaking and then plated on LB agar with tetracycline (10 µg/ml). The presence of pHS-Tet in transformants was confirmed using restriction digests as described above.
Southern hybridization analysis. Bacterial genomic DNA was isolated as previously described (3). Restriction endonuclease (EcoRV or AccI for strain HS1858 only)-digested plasmid DNA [for tet(B) blot] or MspI-digested H. parasuis strain 1543 genomic DNA and EcoRV-digested pHS-Tet ad pHS-Tet/pHS-Rec plasmid preparations (for tetR blot) were separated on 0.7% agarose gels and transferred to GeneScreen Hybridization Transfer membrane (NEN Life Science Products) by capillary action (3). A DNA fragment containing the tet(B) gene was amplified from pHS-Tet using primers BF and BR as previously described (22). A DNA fragment containing the Tn10 tetR gene was amplified from E. coli strain TST-1 genomic DNA using primers TetRfwd (5'-ATGATGTCTAGATTAGATAAAAGTAAAG) and TetRrev (5'-TTAAGACCCACTTTCACATTTAAGTTG). Blots were hybridized with digoxigenin (DIG)-labeled PCR products for 16 h at 68°C. Washes and detection were carried out (DIG DNA Labeling and Detection Kit; Roche) as recommended by the manufacturer.
Antibiotic susceptibility assays.
The tetracycline MIC test described by Blackall (5) was used. Isolates were regarded as being resistant to tetracycline if the MIC was
16 µg/ml and sensitive if the MIC was
4 µg/ml (5). A. pleuropneumoniae strain ATCC 27090 was used as the control strain. Serial dilutions of bacterial dilutions were also grown on TM/SN medium with and without 5 µg/ml tetracycline to confirm the MIC results.
Nucleotide sequence accession numbers. The sequences of plasmids pHS-Tet and pHS-Rec have been deposited in the GenBank database under accession numbers AY862435 and AY862436, respectively.
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The genetic map of plasmid pHS-Tet is shown in Fig. 1. The plasmid is 5,147 bp in size, and detailed analysis of the sequence revealed a tet(B) tetracycline resistance gene and mobABC plasmid mobilization genes (see Table 1). The plasmid is similar in structure to the Mannheimia haemolytica plasmid pAB2 (23), which differs from pHS-Tet by containing a ß-lactamase (bla) resistance gene in place of tet(B). The tet(B) gene has 99% amino acid similarity to the Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi Tn10 tet(B) efflux pump and is flanked by a duplicated 53-bp sequence. Unusually, there is no tetR gene encoding the Tn10-associated repressor protein located downstream of the pHS-Tet tet(B) gene. This is in contrast to plasmid pPAT2 (14), previously isolated from Pasteurella aerogenes, that contains the tet(B) gene and its repressor tetR. Tn10 and plasmid pHS-Tet diverge 15 bp upstream and 78 bp downstream of the tet(B) gene. Plasmid pHS-Tet has a single partial repressor binding site, in contrast to the two binding sites necessary for full gene repression located between the tet(B) and tetR genes in Tn10. Southern hybridization analysis of the HS1543 genome (including plasmids pHS-Tet and pHS-Rec) using a tetR probe confirmed the absence of tetR either on pHS-Tet, pHS-Rec, or in the chromosome (data not shown). Constitutive expression of Tn10-like tetracycline resistance has previously been reported in Haemophilus parainfluenzae, mediated by an inactivating point deletion mutation in the tetR gene (10). Tetracycline sensitivity profiling revealed that strain HS1543 was tetracycline resistant, indicating that the tet(B) gene product is functional. Tetracycline resistance determinants Tet A and Tet B have previously been reported in transposons on a conjugative multidrug-resistant plasmid in E. coli of the normal enteric flora of pigs (21). The tetracycline resistance determinant tet(B), the most common determinant found in Enterobacteriaceae (12), has also been found in Pasteurella multocida isolates from swine (13). In addition, it has been demonstrated that in chickens given feed with tetracycline, the transfer of tetracycline resistance genes occurred between E. coli strains (16). Hence, it is possible that the use of tetracycline as a therapeutic agent and in-feed additive in the swine industry may select for H. parasuis strains resistant to tetracycline.
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FIG. 1. Schematic map of plasmid pHS-Tet (A) and pHS-Rec (B). White arrows indicate putative ORFs, vertical bars indicate direct repeats, bow ties (opposing triangles) indicate inverted repeats, and bent arrows indicate primer binding sites. The black arc inside the map of pHS-Tet indicates the region of pHS-Tet sharing similarity with plasmid pAB2. The white boxes on the map of pHS-Tet indicate regions of duplicated sequence.
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TABLE 1. Summary of genes found on the pHS-Tet and pHS-Rec plasmids of H. parasuis
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There was approximately 1.2 kb of DNA sequence obtained from plasmid pHS-Tet which had 99% similarity (1,192/1,200; 6 gaps) to the replication region of plasmid pAB2 (23) and 88% similarity (1,060/1,200; 12 gaps) to the replication region of plasmid pIG1 (24). In this region, pHS-Tet contained 20-, 16-, and 38-bp inverted repeats, similar to the 20-, 16-, and 38-bp inverted repeats found in the pIG1 replication region. The absence of large ORFs, with the presence of inverted repeats, and homology to known replication origins suggest that the origin of replication for plasmid pHS-Tet may be located in this region. Like plasmids pAB2 and pIG1, plasmid pHS-Tet is able to replicate in E. coli after electroporation into strain XL1-Blue MR.
The genetic map of plasmid pHS-Rec is shown in Fig. 1. The plasmid is 9,462 bp in size, and detailed analysis of the sequence revealed eight ORFs (Table 1). Although plasmid pHS-Rec does not share any DNA or protein similarity to any known plasmid families, the association between repB and parA has been previously reported in the backbone of self-replicating plasmids (4). There appears to be no antibiotic resistance marker or tetR repressor gene on pHS-Rec.
Survey of tetracycline resistance in H. parasuis. A survey of the prevalence of tetracycline resistance was undertaken using a panel of H. parasuis strains including the 15 international reference strains, a genetically diverse collection of Australian field isolates (15 strains) selected by electropherotype (6), and a group of 15 recent Australian field isolates of different serovars (Table 2). No formally approved methodology exists for a MIC test with H. parasuis. The method we have used has been previously used on another difficult bacterium (H. paragallinarum) and has been shown to give the expected MIC results with formal control strains (5). The modifications to this procedure were validated by the A. pleuropneumoniae control strain ATCC 27090 (18).
H. parasuis strains HS226 and HS1859 were tetracycline resistant (MIC of 64 µg/ml) as was strain HS1543 (MIC of 16 µg/ml). Additional clinical isolates from the same disease outbreak as strain HS1859 were examined, and a further tetracycline-resistant H. parasuis strain (HS1857) and a resistant A. pleuropneumoniae strain (HS1861) were identified along with a tetracycline-sensitive H. parasuis strain (HS1858). An approximately 10.6-kb plasmid was identified in these strains, and characterization by restriction digests (Fig. 2) suggests that the plasmids from strains HS226 and HS1861 are related. Similarly, plasmids from strains HS1857 and HS1859 appear related, though these two strains are both serovar 8/9, suggesting possible clonality.
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FIG. 2. Restriction endonuclease characterization of plasmids uncut (A), digested with AccI (B), or digested with ClaI (C). Lanes 1, 1-kb ladder (Invitrogen); lanes, 2, pHS-Tet; lanes 3, HS226 plasmid; lanes 4, HS1857 plasmid; lanes 5, HS1858 plasmid; lanes 6, HS1859 plasmid; lanes 7, HS1861 plasmid.
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FIG. 3. Agarose gel of restriction endonuclease linearization of plasmids using EcoRV (except that AccI was used to linearize plasmid from HS1858) (A) and Southern hybridization analysis of gel shown in panel A transferred to nitrocellulose membrane and probed with a DIG-labeled PCR product containing the tet(B) gene (B). Lanes 1, pHS-Tet; lanes 2, HS226 plasmid; lanes 3, HS1857 plasmid; lanes 4, HS1858 plasmid; lanes 5, HS1859 plasmid; lanes 6, HS1861 plasmid. DNA fragment sizes are indicated in kb.
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