The Acquisition of Resistance to Carbapenem and Macrolide-mediated Quorum Sensing Inhibition byPseudomonas aeruginosavia a Novel Integrative and Conjugative Element ICETn43716385
AbstractPseudomonas aeruginosacan cause persistant and life-threatening infections in immunocompromised patients. Carbapenems are the first-line agents to treatP. aeruginosainfections; therefore, the emergence of carbapenem-resistantP. aeruginosastrains has greatly challenged effective antibiotic therapy. In this study, we characterised the full-length genomes of two carbapenem resistantP. aeruginosaclinical isolates that produce the carbapebemase New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase-1 (NDM-1). We found that theblaNDM-1gene is encoded by a novel intergrative and conjugative element (ICE) ICETn43716385, which also carries the macrolide resistance genemsr(E)and the florfenicol resistance genefloR. Themsr(E)gene has rarely been described inP. aeruginosagenomes. To investigate the functional roles ofmsr(E)inP. aeruginosa, we exogeneously expressed this gene inP. aeruginosalaboratory strains and found that the acquisition ofmsr(E)could abolish the azithromycin-mediated quorum sensing inhibitionin vitroand the anti-Pseudomonas effect of azithromycinin vivo. In addition, the expression ofmsr(E)almost completely restored the azithromycin-affectedP. aeruginosatranscriptome, as shown by our RNA sequencing analysis. We present the first evidence ofblaNDM-1to be carried by intergrative and conjugative elements, and the first evidence of co-transfer of carbapenem resistance and the resistance to macrolide-mediated quorum sensing inhibition intoP. aeruginosagenomes.ImportanceCarbapenem resistantP. aeruginosahas recently been listed as the top three most dangerous superbugs by World Health Organisation. The transmission ofblaNDM-1gene intoP. aeruginosacan cause extreme resistance to carbapenems and fourth generation cephalosporins, which greatly compromises the effectiveness of these antibiotics against Pseudomonas infections. However, the lack of complete genome sequence of NDM-1-producingP. aeruginosahas limited our understanding of the transmisibility ofblaNDM-1in this organism. Here we showed the co-transfer ofblaNDM-1andmsr(E)intoP. aeruginosagenome by a novel integrative and conjugative element (ICE). The acquisition of these two genes confersP. aeruginosawith resistance to carbapenem and macrolide-mediated quorum sensing inhibition, both of which are important treatment stretagies forP. aeruginosainfections. Our findings highlight the potential of ICEs in transmitting carbapenem resistance, and that the anti-virulence treatment ofP. aeruginosainfections by macrolides can be challenged by horizontal gene transfer.