Klebsiella species: Taxonomy, hypervirulence and multidrug resistance
Ning Dong,
Xuemei Yang,
Edward Wai-Chi Chan,
Rong Zhang,
Sheng Chen
Affiliations
Ning Dong
Department of Infectious Diseases and Public Health, Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China
Xuemei Yang
Department of Infectious Diseases and Public Health, Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China
Edward Wai-Chi Chan
State Key Lab of Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery, Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology, The Hong Kong polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Hong Kong, China
Rong Zhang
Department of Clinical Laboratory, Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University, School of Medicine, Zhejiang, Hangzhou, China
Sheng Chen
Department of Infectious Diseases and Public Health, Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China; Corresponding author: Sheng Chen, Department of Infectious Diseases and Public Health, Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China.
Summary: Members of the genus Klebsiella have rapidly evolved within the past decade, generating organisms that simultaneously exhibit both multidrug resistance and hypervirulence (MDR-hv) phenotypes; such organisms are associated with severe hospital- and community-acquired infections. Carbapenem-resistant infections with unknown optimal treatment regime were of particular concern among the MDR-hv Klebsiella strains. Recent studies have revealed the molecular features and the mobile resistance elements they harbour, allowing identification of genetic loci responsible for transmission, stable inheritance, and expression of mobile resistance or virulence-encoding elements that confer the new phenotypic characteristics of MDR-hv Klebsiella spp. Here, we provide a comprehensive review on the taxonomic position, species composition and different phylotypes of Klebsiella spp., describing the diversity and worldwide distribution of the MDR-hv clones, the genetic mutation and horizontal gene transfer events that drive the evolution of such clones, and the potential impact of MDR-hv infections on human health.
