Identification of AGI1-A, a variant of Acinetobacter genomic island 1 (AGI1), in a French clinical isolate belonging to the Enterobacter cloacae complex

Objectives: To characterize the structure of a variant of Acinetobacter genomic island 1 (AGI1) in the Enterobacter cloacae clinical isolate EclC2185 responsible for an 8 year outbreak in Dijon University Hospital. Methods: The genome was sequenced (Miseq) and de novo assembled (Velvet). PCR and Sanger sequencing were performed to determine the sequence of the genomic island. Results: The new variant of AGI1 named AGI1-A (41.7 kb), located at the 3' end of the chromosomal trmE, was detected in an E. cloacae complex isolate identified as Enterobacter hormaechei subsp. oharae. The backbone of AGI1-A lacked A008, part of A025, A026 and the resolvase gene. Its MDR region (19.7 kb) contained two integrons followed by a hybrid transposon Tn502/Tn5053. The former integron was a typical In4-type class 1 integron carrying aadA1 and the latter integron carrying dfrA1 did not belong to a class described to date. The nucleotide sequence intI-dfrA1 was surrounded by a 78 bp imperfect repeat sequence in inverse orientation. An external circular form of AGI1-A was detected, suggesting potential mobility. AGI1-A was also detected in 15 isolates from the outbreak selected at random. They belonged to the ST114 high-risk clone. Conclusions: AGI1-A, a variant of AGI1 described in Acinetobacter baumannii, is the first genomic resistance island belonging to the Salmonella genomic island/Proteus genomic island/Acinetobacter genomic island family detected in E. cloacae. One might, therefore, fear for interspecies dissemination of genomic islands from this family.