Genomic characterization of novel IncFII-type multidrug resistant plasmids p0716-KPC and p12181-KPC from Klebsiella pneumoniae

This study aimed to genetically characterize two fully-sequenced novel IncFII-type multidrug resistant (MDR) plasmids, p0716-KPC and p12181-KPC, recovered from two different clinical Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates. p0716-KPC and p12181-KPC had a very similar genomic content. The backbones of p0716-KPC/p12181-KPC contained two different replicons (belonging to a novel IncFII subtype and the Rep_3 family), the IncFII(K) and IncFII(Y) maintenance regions, and conjugal transfer gene sets from IncFII(K)-type plasmids and unknown origins. p0716-KPC and p12181-KPC carried similar three accessory resistance regions, namely ΔTn6209, a MDR region, and the bla (KPC-2) region. Resistance genes bla (KPC-2), mph(A), strAB, aacC2, qacEΔ1, sul1, sul2, and dfrA25, which are associated with transposons, integrons, and insertion sequence-based mobile units, were located in these accessory regions. p0716-KPC carried two additional resistance genes: aphA1a and bla (TEM-1). Together, our analyses showed that p0716-KPC and p12181-KPC belong to a novel IncFII subtype and display a complex chimeric nature, and that the carbapenem resistance gene bla (KPC-2) coexists with a lot of additional resistance genes on these two plasmids.