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Comparative Analysis of the First Complete Enterococcus faecium Genome

2012; American Society for Microbiology; Volume: 194; Issue: 9 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1128/jb.00259-12

1098-5530

Margaret M. C. Lam, Torsten Seemann, Dieter Bulach, Simon Gladman, Honglei Chen, Volker Häring, Robert J. Moore, Susan A. Ballard, M. Lindsay Grayson, Paul D. R. Johnson, Benjamin P. Howden, Timothy P. Stinear,

Enterobacteriaceae and Cronobacter Research

Vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) are one of the leading causes of nosocomial infections in health care facilities around the globe. In particular, infections caused by vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium are becoming increasingly common. Comparative and functional genomic studies of E. faecium isolates have so far been limited owing to the lack of a fully assembled E. faecium genome sequence. Here we address this issue and report the complete 3.0-Mb genome sequence of the multilocus sequence type 17 vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium strain Aus0004, isolated from the bloodstream of a patient in Melbourne, Australia, in 1998. The genome comprises a 2.9-Mb circular chromosome and three circular plasmids. The chromosome harbors putative E. faecium virulence factors such as enterococcal surface protein, hemolysin, and collagen-binding adhesin. Aus0004 has a very large accessory genome (38%) that includes three prophage and two genomic islands absent among 22 other E. faecium genomes. One of the prophage was present as inverted 50-kb repeats that appear to have facilitated a 683-kb chromosomal inversion across the replication terminus, resulting in a striking replichore imbalance. Other distinctive features include 76 insertion sequence elements and a single chromosomal copy of Tn1549 containing the vanB vancomycin resistance element. A complete E. faecium genome will be a useful resource to assist our understanding of this emerging nosocomial pathogen.