Identification of AGI1-A, a variant of Acinetobacter genomic island 1 (AGI1), in a French clinical isolate belonging to the Enterobacter cloacae complex.

Objectives To characterize the structure of a variant of Acinetobacter genomic island 1 (AGI1) in the Enterobacter cloacae clinical isolate EclC2185 responsible for an 8 year outbreak in Dijon University Hospital. Methods The genome was sequenced (Miseq) and de novo assembled (Velvet). PCR and Sanger sequencing were performed to determine the sequence of the genomic island. Results The new variant of AGI1 named AGI1-A (41.7 kb), located at the 3′ end of the chromosomal trmE, was detected in an E. cloacae complex isolate identified as Enterobacter hormaechei subsp. oharae. The backbone of AGI1-A lacked A008, part of A025, A026 and the resolvase gene. Its MDR region (19.7 kb) contained two integrons followed by a hybrid transposon Tn 502 /Tn 5053. The former integron was a typical In4-type class 1 integron carrying aadA1 and the latter integron carrying dfrA1 did not belong to a class described to date. The nucleotide sequence intI-dfrA1 was surrounded by a 78 bp imperfect repeat sequence in inverse orientation. An external circular form of AGI1-A was detected, suggesting potential mobility. AGI1-A was also detected in 15 isolates from the outbreak selected at random. They belonged to the ST114 high-risk clone. Conclusions AGI1-A, a variant of AGI1 described in Acinetobacter baumannii, is the first genomic resistance island belonging to the Salmonella genomic island/ Proteus genomic island/ Acinetobacter genomic island family detected in E. cloacae. One might, therefore, fear for interspecies dissemination of genomic islands from this family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]