Caracterización in silico de una secuencia de genoma completo de Escherichia coli mcr-1 positiva de origen animal de Ecuador

Abstract

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has been one of the causes of major morbidity in humans, produced by resistant bacteria that acquire their pathogenicity by transmission mechanisms, such as horizontal transmission of mobile genetic elements. mcr-1 is a gene that generates resistance to colistin, a polymyxin antibiotic used for the treatment of multidrug-resistant bacterial infections, where its global dissemination has become a health threat. Escherichia coli is a species with a major presence of mcr-1 in various reservoirs such as food, animals, environment, and humans. Ecuador has presented few studies on Escherichia coli mcr-1 in different hosts; however, its dissemination in the country remains unknown. For this reason, we intend to characterize in silico the Escherichia coli mcr-1 positive strain (UTA069) of animal origin, using its genome sequence to evaluate the phylogenetic distance by comparing it with 124 strains of E. coli carrying the mcr-1 gene from 25 countries using bioinformatics tools. UTA069 belonged to sequence type ST1196, virulence genes, plasmids and antibiotic resistance gene profiles were detected. Phylogenetic distances showed a close relationship between UTA069 and its analogues from Spain, whereas the remaining Ecuadorian strains are mainly related to isolates of Asian and European origin. Finally, Ecuadorian isolates showed co-resistance to different classes of antibiotics such as aminoglycosides, sulfonamides, tetracyclines, and in greater proportion to beta-lactams, whose presence has increased in recent years in microorganisms belonging to the Enterobacteriaceae family.