Characterizing clinical carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae  phenotypes and genomic information reveals its molecular epidemiology

Abstract The enhancing incidence of carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae (CRKP)-mediated infections in Mengchao Hepatobiliary Hospital of Fujian Medical University in 2017 promoted this investigation to study gene phenotypes and resistance genes of emergence regarding the CRKP strains. In current study, seven inpatients are enrolled in the hospital with complete treatments. The carbapenem-resistant K. pneumoniae whole genome is sequenced using MiSeq short-read and Oxford Nanopore long-read sequencing technology. Prophages are identified to assess genetic diversity within CRKP genomes. The investigation encompassed eight CRKP strains that collected from the patients enrolled as well as the environment, which illustrate that bla KPC-2 is responsible for phenotypic resistance in six CRKP strains that K . pneumoniae sequence type (ST-11) is inferred. The plasmid with IncR, ColRNAI and pMLST type with IncF[F33:A-:B-] co-exist in all ST-11 with KPC-2-producing CRKP strains. Along with carbapenemases, all K. pneumoniae strains harbor two or three extended spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)-producing genes. F osA gene is detected amongst all the CRKP strains. The oqxA and oqxB expressions in CRKP strains may lead to carbapenem resistance since antimicrobials are expelled from pathogenic bacteria by efflux pump. The single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) markers are indicated and validated among all CRKP strains, providing valuable clues for distinguishing carbapenem-resistant strains from conventional K. pneumoniae .