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Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. doi:10.1128/AAC.01093-07
Copyright (c) 2008, American Society for Microbiology and/or the Listed Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved.

Complete sequence of p07-406, a 24,179bp plasmid harbouring the bla_VIM-7 metallo--lactamase gene in a Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolate from United States

Department of Cellular Molecular Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TD, UK; Department of Medical Microbiology, School of Medicine, University of Cardiff, Cardiff CF14 4XN, UK; JMI Laboratories, 345 Beaver Kreek Centre, Suite A, North Liberty, Iowa 52317, USA

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: WalshTR{at}Cardiff.ac.uk.

	Abstract

An outbreak involving a Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain that was resistant to all tested antimicrobials except polymyxin B occurred in a hospital in Houston, Texas, USA. Previous studies on this strain showed it possess a novel mobile metallo--lactamase (MBL) gene designated bla_VIM-7 located on a plasmid (p07-406). Here we report the complete sequence, annotation and functional characterisation of this plasmid. p07-406 is 24,179bp in length and 29 open reading frames (ORFs) were identified related to known or putatively recognised proteins. Analysis of this plasmid showed it to be comprised of four distinct regions: (i) a region of 5200bp having a Tn501-like mercuric resistance (mer) transposon upstream of replication region; (ii) a Tn3 like transposon carrying a truncated integron with bla_VIM-7 gene, and an insertion sequence inserted at the other end of this transposon; (iii) a region of four genes, upstream of Tn3-like transposon,possessing very high similarity to a plasmid pXcB from Xanthomonas campestris p.v. citri commonly associated with plants; (iv) a backbone sequence similar to the backbone structure of IncP group plasmid Rms149, pB10 and R751. This is the first plasmid to be sequenced carrying an MBL gene and highlights the amelioration of DNA segments from disparate origins, most noticeably from plant pathogens.