Genomic Comparative Analysis of Two Multi-Drug Resistance (MDR) <i>Acinetobacter baumannii</i> Clinical Strains Assigned to International Clonal Lineage II Recovered Pre- and Post-COVID-19 Pandemic
German Matias Traglia,
Fernando Pasteran,
Jenny Escalante,
Brent Nishimura,
Marisel R. Tuttobene,
Tomás Subils,
Maria Rosa Nuñez,
María Gabriela Rivollier,
Alejandra Corso,
Marcelo E. Tolmasky,
Maria Soledad Ramirez
Affiliations
German Matias Traglia
Departamento de Desarrollo Biotecnológico, Instituto de Higiene, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de la Republica, Montevideo 11200, Uruguay
Fernando Pasteran
National Regional Reference Laboratory for Antimicrobial Resistance (NRL), Servicio Antimicrobianos, Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Infecciosas, ANLIS Dr. Carlos G. Malbrán, Buenos Aires 1282, Argentina
Jenny Escalante
Center for Applied Biotechnology Studies, Department of Biological Science, College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, California State University Fullerton, Fullerton, CA 92831, USA
Brent Nishimura
Center for Applied Biotechnology Studies, Department of Biological Science, College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, California State University Fullerton, Fullerton, CA 92831, USA
Marisel R. Tuttobene
Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario (IBR, CONICET-UNR), Rosario 2000, Argentina
Tomás Subils
Instituto de Procesos Biotecnológicos y Químicos de Rosario (IPROBYQ, CONICET-UNR), Rosario 2000, Argentina
Maria Rosa Nuñez
Laboratorio de Microbiología, Hospital Provincial Neuquén Dr. Castro Rendón, Neuquén 8300, Argentina
María Gabriela Rivollier
Laboratorio de Microbiología, Hospital Artémides Zatti, Viedma, Rio Negro 8500, Argentina
Alejandra Corso
National Regional Reference Laboratory for Antimicrobial Resistance (NRL), Servicio Antimicrobianos, Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Infecciosas, ANLIS Dr. Carlos G. Malbrán, Buenos Aires 1282, Argentina
Marcelo E. Tolmasky
Center for Applied Biotechnology Studies, Department of Biological Science, College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, California State University Fullerton, Fullerton, CA 92831, USA
Maria Soledad Ramirez
Center for Applied Biotechnology Studies, Department of Biological Science, College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, California State University Fullerton, Fullerton, CA 92831, USA
Background: After the emergence of COVID-19, numerous cases of A. baumannii/SARS-CoV-2 co-infection were reported. Whether the co-infecting A. baumannii strains have distinctive characteristics remains unknown. Methods and Results: A. baumannii AMA_NO was isolated in 2021 from a patient with COVID-19. AMA166 was isolated from a mini-BAL used on a patient with pneumonia in 2016. Both genomes were similar, but they possessed 337 (AMA_NO) and 93 (AMA166) unique genes that were associated with biofilm formation, flagellar assembly, antibiotic resistance, secretion systems, and other functions. The antibiotic resistance genes were found within mobile genetic elements. While both strains harbored the carbapenemase-coding gene blaOXA-23, only the strain AMA_NO carried blaNDM-1. Representative functions coded for by virulence genes are the synthesis of the outer core of lipooligosaccharide (OCL5), biosynthesis and export of the capsular polysaccharide (KL2 cluster), high-efficiency iron uptake systems (acinetobactin and baumannoferrin), adherence, and quorum sensing. A comparative phylogenetic analysis including 239 additional sequence type (ST) 2 representative genomes showed high similarity to A. baumannii ABBL141. Since the degree of similarity that was observed between A. baumannii AMA_NO and AMA166 is higher than that found among other ST2 strains, we propose that they derive from a unique background based on core-genome phylogeny and comparative genome analysis. Conclusions: Acquisition or shedding of specific genes could increase the ability of A. baumannii to infect patients with COVID-19.
