Fuente: Microorganisms - Revista científica (MDPI) Microorganisms, Vol. 13, Pages 2824: Genomic Insights into blaNDM-5-Producing Escherichia coli ST648 Isolates from Human and Wildlife Sources in Lebanon
Microorganisms doi: 10.3390/microorganisms13122824
Authors:
Zahraa F. Samadi
Ziad C. Jabbour
Zeinab R. Hodroj
Hadi M. Hussein
Abdallah Kurdi
Lama Hamadeh
Rami Mahfouz
Mahmoud I. Khalil
Rana El Hajj
Ghassan M. Matar
Antoine G. Abou Fayad

Escherichia coli sequence type 648 (ST648), a lineage within the clinically important phylogroup F, has disseminated worldwide in humans and animals. In this study, we performed whole-genome sequencing and comparative genomic analysis for two New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase (blaNDM-5) carrying E. coli strains: ECsOL198, recovered from a wild Eurasian otter in Northern Lebanon, and ECOL247, isolated from a hospitalized leukemia patient. Both isolates belonged to phylogroup F and serotype O9:H4, and exhibited IncFIA, IncFIB, and IncFII plasmids. They shared a similar antimicrobial resistance profile, including a carbapenemase gene (blaNDM-5), β-lactamase genes (blaTEM-1, blaCTX-M-15, and blaOXA-1), and other genes that confer resistance to aminoglycosides (acc(3)-Ile, aadA2), sulfonamides (sul1), tetracyclines (tet(A)), and fluoroquinolones (mutations in gyrA and parC). Both isolates also carried common virulence-associated genes related to adhesion, iron acquisition, environmental persistence, and immune evasion. Whole-genome multilocus sequence typing (wgMLST) revealed that both isolates formed a distinct subclade closely related to a bloodstream-derived ST648 isolate from India, indicating limited relatedness to global clones. These findings highlight the transmission of nearly clonal multidrug-resistant E. coli ST648 in both clinical and non-clinical settings, raising concerns about the threat to public health.