Type 1 Integrons in Epidemiologically Unrelated Acinetobacter baumannii Isolates Collected at Spanish Hospitals

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Abstract
Identical to that found in the integron mentioned above. Of the two isolates containing this integron, one was resistant to both tobramycin and amikacin, while the other isolate was resistant to tobramycin but was susceptible to amikacin. These results agreed with those found by Ploy et al. (8) who found two isolates with the same integron but susceptible to amikacin. Only one isolate (5.26%) showed an amplicon of approxi- mately 2,800 bp containing four gene cassettes (Table 1), an aacC1 determinant, followed by two ORFs that code for un- known products and that are carried on two cassettes (5), and an aadA1a gene. To our knowledge, this type of integron carrying four gene cassettes has been described only once and is found in Italian isolates (5). The integrons of 800, 2,400, and 2,800 bp, were found in Italian A. baumannii isolates. In order to elucidate whether Italian isolates with the same type of integrons (5) possessed the same clonal origin as the Spanish clinical isolates of A. baumannii, a PFGE was performed. The results showed that all the isolates were not epidemiologically related. In conclusion, our results reflect the potential risk of anti- microbial resistance dissemination, both within and between unrelated species. Moreover, we demonstrate that nonrelated isolates from different geographic areas are able to acquire common integrons, leading to the question of whether A. bau- mannii has a clear affinity for a specific type of integron.

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