IS 26-Mediated Formation of a Hybrid Plasmid Carrying mcr-1.1

Renjie Wu; Luchao Lv; Chengzhen Wang; Guolong Gao; Kaiyang Yu; Zhongpeng Cai; Yiyun Liu; Jun Yang; Jian-Hua Liu

doi:10.2147/IDR.S390765

IS 26-Mediated Formation of a Hybrid Plasmid Carrying mcr-1.1

Infect Drug Resist. 2022 Dec 9:15:7227-7234. doi: 10.2147/IDR.S390765. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Renjie Wu^#^{1

2

3}, Luchao Lv^#^{1

2

3}, Chengzhen Wang^{1

2

3}, Guolong Gao^{1

2

3}, Kaiyang Yu^{1

2

3}, Zhongpeng Cai^{1

2

3}, Yiyun Liu^{1

2

3}, Jun Yang^{1

2

3}, Jian-Hua Liu^{1

2

3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Zoonosis of Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Affairs, College of Veterinary Medicine, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.
² Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Veterinary Pharmaceutics Development and Safety Evaluation, College of Veterinary Medicine, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.
³ National Risk Assessment Laboratory for Antimicrobial Resistance of Microorganisms in Animal, College of Veterinary Medicine, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.
⁴ Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Purpose: The objective of this study was to elucidate the characteristics and mechanism of formation of the fusion plasmid pHNSHP24 carrying mcr-1.1.

Materials and methods: mcr-1.1-bearing Escherichia coli SHP24 and the corresponding transconjugant were subjected to whole-genome sequencing (WGS) combining the Illumina and MinION platforms to obtain the complete sequences of the fusion plasmid and its original plasmids.

Results: Complete sequence analysis and S1 nuclease-pulsed field gel electrophoresis (S1-PFGE) results indicated that E. coli SHP24 carried four plasmids: mcr-1.1-harboring phage-like plasmid pHNSHP24-3, F53:A-:B- plasmid pHNSHP24-4, pHNSHP24-1, and pHNSHP24-2. However, the plasmid pHNSHP24 carrying mcr-1.1 presents in the transconjugant differed from the four plasmids in the donor strain SHP24. Further analysis showed that pHNSHP24 may be the fusion product of pHNSHP24-3 and pHNSHP24-4 and is formed through a replicative transposition mechanism mediated by IS26 in E. coli SHP24.

Conclusion: This study is the first to report the fusion of an mcr-1.1-harboring phage-like pO111 plasmid and an F53:A-:B- plasmid mediated by IS26. Our findings revealed the role of phage-like and fusion plasmids in the dissemination of mcr-1.1.

Keywords: IS26; fusion plasmid; mcr-1.1; pO111 plasmid.