Characteristics of clinical isolates of Acinetobacter genomospecies 10 carrying two different metallo-beta-lactamases.

Abstract

Acquired metallo-beta-lactamase (MBL) production is an important mechanism of carbapenem resistance. To our knowledge, carriage of two different MBLs has not been described previously in Acinetobacter spp. We present the characteristics of five Acinetobacter isolates carrying two different MBL genes. The species of all five Acinetobacter isolates with two different MBL genes were Acinetobacter genomospecies 10, and bla(IMP-1), bla(VIM-2) and bla(SIM-1) may coexist in this species. Minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of imipenem for all five isolates with two different MBLs were >or=32 microg/mL, whilst those for two segregants that lost both MBLs were 0.5 microg/mL. The presence of MBL gene-carrying integrons with identical structures suggested the easily transferable nature of the elements, whilst instability of the MBL genes indicated potentially erroneous phenotypic and genetic characterisation.