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The complete genome, comparative and functional analysis of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia reveals an organism heavily shielded by drug resistance determinants

2008; BioMed Central; Volume: 9; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1186/gb-2008-9-4-r74

1474-760X

Lisa Crossman, Virginia C. Gould, J. Maxwell Dow, Georgios S Vernikos, Aki Okazaki, Mohammed Sebaihia, David Saunders, C. Arrowsmith, Tim Carver, Nicholas Peters, Ellen Adlem, Arnaud Kerhornou, Angela Lord, Lee Murphy, Katharine Seeger, Robert Squares, Simon Rutter, Michael A. Quail, Mari-Adele Rajandream, David J. Harris, Carol Churcher, Stephen D. Bentley, Julian Parkhill, Nicholas R. Thomson, Matthew B. Avison,

Microbial Applications in Construction Materials

Abstract Background Stenotrophomonas maltophilia is a nosocomial opportunistic pathogen of the Xanthomonadaceae. The organism has been isolated from both clinical and soil environments in addition to the sputum of cystic fibrosis patients and the immunocompromised. Whilst relatively distant phylogenetically, the closest sequenced relatives of S. maltophilia are the plant pathogenic xanthomonads. Results The genome of the bacteremia-associated isolate S. maltophilia K279a is 4,851,126 bp and of high G+C content. The sequence reveals an organism with a remarkable capacity for drug and heavy metal resistance. In addition to a number of genes conferring resistance to antimicrobial drugs of different classes via alternative mechanisms, nine resistance-nodulation-division (RND)-type putative antimicrobial efflux systems are present. Functional genomic analysis confirms a role in drug resistance for several of the novel RND efflux pumps. S. maltophilia possesses potentially mobile regions of DNA and encodes a number of pili and fimbriae likely to be involved in adhesion and biofilm formation that may also contribute to increased antimicrobial drug resistance. Conclusion The panoply of antimicrobial drug resistance genes and mobile genetic elements found suggests that the organism can act as a reservoir of antimicrobial drug resistance determinants in a clinical environment, which is an issue of considerable concern.