The emergence of the plasmid-mediated tigecycline resistance gene tetX family in pig farms has attracted worldwide attention. The use of tetracycline antibiotics in pig farms has a facilitating effect on the prevalence of the tetX family, but the relationship among its presence, expression, and resistance phenotype in resistant bacteria is unknown. In this study, the presence and expression characteristics of tetracycline resistance genes (TRGs) in 89 strains of doxycycline-resistant E. coli (DRE) isolated from pig manure samples from 20 pig farms under low concentrations of doxycycline stress (2 μg/mL) were analyzed. The detection rate of tetO was 96.63%, which is higher than those of other TRGs, such as tetA (94.38%), tetX (76.40%), tetB (73.03%), and tet(X4) (69.66%). At least three TRG types were present in DRE strains, which thus showed extensive resistance to tetracycline antibiotics, and 37% of these strains were resistant to tigecycline. In the presence of a low concentration of doxycycline, tetA played an important role, and the expression and existence ratio of TRGs indicated low expression of TRGs. Furthermore, the doxycycline resistance of DRE was jointly determined by the total absolute abundance of TRGs, and the absolute abundance of tetX and tet(X4) was significantly positively associated with tigecycline resistance in DRE (P < 0.05). Overall, DRE isolated from swine manure is an important reservoir of the tetX family, which suggests that DRE in swine manure has a high risk of tigecycline resistance, poses a potential threat to human health, and should be of public concern.
Keywords: Doxycycline; E. coli; Swine manure; TetX family; Tetracycline resistance gene; Tigecycline.
© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.