New Delhi Metallo-β-Lactamase Plasmidomes of Intensive Care Unit Clinical and Environmental Enterobacterales Isolates.
5 affiliations
- 1Servicio Antimicrobianos, National Reference Laboratory in Antimicrobial Resistance (NRLAR), National Institute of Infectious Diseases (INEI), ANLIS "Dr. Carlos G. Malbrán", Buenos Aires, Argentina.
- 2Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
- 3UO Centro Nacional de Genómica y Bioinformática, National Center of Genomics and Bioinformatics, ANLIS "Dr. Carlos G. Malbrán", Buenos Aires, Argentina.
- 4Microbiología, Servicio Laboratorio, Hospital Británico de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
- 5Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Abstract
Background
There are limited data on the molecular epidemiology of New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase (NDM)-producing carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales (CRE) in Latin America, despite the high burden of NDM-CRE in the region. This study characterized bla NDM-harboring plasmids from CRE from patients and the environment of an Argentine hospital.Method
We performed whole-genome sequencing of 40 environmental isolates (Klebsiella complex, n = 11; Enterobacter cloacae, complex n = 16; Citrobacter freundii, n = 10; Serratia marcescens, n = 3) and 4 clinical isolates (Klebsiella pneumoniae, n = 4) recovered from the environment and rectal surveillance samples of patients in the same intensive care units (ICUs) at a tertiary care center in Argentina, July 2023-February 2024, respectively. Representative genomic groups underwent Oxford Nanopore sequencing and hybrid genome assembly for complete plasmid characterization. Resolved bla NDM-harboring plasmids were compared across species and publicly available reference sequences to characterize plasmid relatedness and dissemination patterns.Results
Ten representative genomic groups were identified across species, including 7 defined sequence types and 3 assigned in this study. bla NDM-1 and bla NDM-5 were present in 72.5% (29/40) and 27.5% (11/40) of environmental isolates, respectively (all 4 clinical isolates were bla NDM-5). Hybrid assembly of the representative genomic groups revealed bla NDM-1 was located on highly conserved plasmids belonging to the IncC incompatibility group across multiple CRE species. bla NDM-5 was restricted to Klebsiella spp. and was associated with structurally diverse plasmids including IncF- and IncHI1B/IncFIB-type backbones in both environmental and patient isolates.Conclusions
These findings highlight the ICU environment as a reservoir for bla NDM plasmids.
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BibTeX
@article{martino2026delhi,
title = {{New Delhi Metallo-β-Lactamase Plasmidomes of Intensive Care Unit Clinical and Environmental Enterobacterales Isolates.}},
author = {Florencia Martino and Denise De Belder and Renata Monge and Agustina Forastiero and Molly Patrick and Kara A Moser and Alejandra Corso and Fernando Pasteran and Matthew Robinson and Valeria Fabre},
journal = {Open forum infectious diseases},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1093/ofid/ofag663},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42898562},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - New Delhi Metallo-β-Lactamase Plasmidomes of Intensive Care Unit Clinical and Environmental Enterobacterales Isolates.
AU - Florencia Martino
AU - Denise De Belder
AU - Renata Monge
AU - Agustina Forastiero
AU - Molly Patrick
AU - Kara A Moser
AU - Alejandra Corso
AU - Fernando Pasteran
AU - Matthew Robinson
AU - Valeria Fabre
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/07
JO - Open forum infectious diseases
DO - 10.1093/ofid/ofag663
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42898562
AB - Background There are limited data on the molecular epidemiology of New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase (NDM)-producing carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales (CRE) in Latin America, despite the high burden of NDM-CRE in the region. This study characterized bla NDM-harboring plasmids from CRE from patients and the environment of an Argentine hospital.Method We performed whole-genome sequencing of 40 environmental isolates (Klebsiella complex, n = 11; Enterobacter cloacae, complex n = 16; Citrobacter freundii, n = 10; Serratia marcescens, n = 3) and 4 clinical isolates (Klebsiella pneumoniae, n = 4) recovered from the environment and rectal surveillance samples of patients in the same intensive care units (ICUs) at a tertiary care center in Argentina, July 2023-February 2024, respectively. Representative genomic groups underwent Oxford Nanopore sequencing and hybrid genome assembly for complete plasmid characterization. Resolved bla NDM-harboring plasmids were compared across species and publicly available reference sequences to characterize plasmid relatedness and dissemination patterns.Results Ten representative genomic groups were identified across species, including 7 defined sequence types and 3 assigned in this study. bla NDM-1 and bla NDM-5 were present in 72.5% (29/40) and 27.5% (11/40) of environmental isolates, respectively (all 4 clinical isolates were bla NDM-5). Hybrid assembly of the representative genomic groups revealed bla NDM-1 was located on highly conserved plasmids belonging to the IncC incompatibility group across multiple CRE species. bla NDM-5 was restricted to Klebsiella spp. and was associated with structurally diverse plasmids including IncF- and IncHI1B/IncFIB-type backbones in both environmental and patient isolates.Conclusions These findings highlight the ICU environment as a reservoir for bla NDM plasmids.
SN - 2328-8957
ER -