Abstract
Using molecular and whole-genome sequencing tools, we investigated colistin-resistant Escherichia coli isolates from wild sea lions. Two unrelated E. coli colistin-resistant isolates, ST8259 and ST4218, were identified, both belonging to the B2 phylogroup and different serotypes. Polymorphisms in PmrA, PmrB, and PhoQ proteins were identified, and the role of PmrB and PhoQ in contributing to colistin resistance was determined by complementation assays. However, the mutations characterized in the present study are not involved in colistin resistance, which have been described in E. coli isolates from clinical settings. Therefore, the acquired mutations in pmrB and phoQ genes in resistance to colistin in bacteria related to marine environment animals are different. This work contributes to the surveillance and characterization of colistin resistance in Escherichia coli obtained from animals from aquatic environments.
Data availability
The annotated genome sequences are available at the European Nucleotide Archive under the following accession numbers: CAACXL010000001-CAACXL010000288 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/CAACXL000000000.1) for E. coli 13591 and CAACXM010000001-CAACXM010000241 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/CAACXM000000000.1) for E. coli 13645.
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Acknowledgments
We thank Dr. Michael Dunn from the Center for Genomic Science-UNAM for reviewing the manuscript.
Funding
This work was supported by grant 256988 from SEP-CONACyT (Secretaría de Educación Pública-Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología).
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The study protocol was approved by Secretaries of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT; SGPA/DGVS/0201211) and of the Interior (SEGOB, SATI/PC/006/111). The study was approved by the Ethics Committee on Research from the Instituto Nacional de Salud Publica.
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Hernández-Castro, R., Rodríguez-Santiago, J., Téllez-Sosa, J. et al. Molecular and genome characterization of colistin-resistant Escherichia coli isolates from wild sea lions (Zalophus californianus). Braz J Microbiol 51, 2009–2014 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42770-020-00371-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42770-020-00371-5