Improved molecular characterization of the Klebsiella oxytoca complex reveals the prevalence of the kleboxymycin biosynthetic gene cluster

Preetha Shibu, Frazer McCuaig, Anne L. McCartney, Magdalena Kujawska, Lindsay J. Hall, Lesley Hoyles*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

As part of the ongoing studies with clinically relevant Klebsiella spp., we characterized the genomes of three clinical GES-5-positive ST138 strains originally identified as Klebsiella oxytoca. blaOXY gene, average nucleotide identity and phylogenetic analyses showed the strains to be Klebsiella michiganensis. Affiliation of the strains to ST138 led us to demonstrate that the current multi-locus sequence typing scheme for K. oxytoca can be used to distinguish members of this genetically diverse complex of bacteria. The strains encoded the kleboxymycin biosynthetic gene cluster (BGC), previously only found in K. oxytoca strains and one strain of Klebsiella grimontii. The finding of this BGC, associated with antibiotic-associated haemorrhagic colitis, in K. michiganensis led us to carry out a wide-ranging study to determine the prevalence of this BGC in Klebsiella spp. Of 7170 publicly available Klebsiella genome sequences screened, 88 encoded the kleboxymycin BGC. All BGC-positive strains belonged to the K. oxytoca complex, with strains of four (K. oxytoca, K. pasteurii, K. grimontii, K. michiganensis) of the six species of complex found to encode the complete BGC. In addition to being found in K. grimontii strains isolated from preterm infants, the BGC was found in K. oxytoca and K. michiganensis metagenome-assembled genomes recovered from neonates. Detection of the kleboxymycin BGC across the K. oxytoca complex may be of clinical relevance and this cluster should be included in databases characterizing virulence factors, in addition to those characterizing BGCs.

Original languageEnglish
Article number000592
Number of pages11
JournalMicrobial Genomics
Volume7
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 18 Jun 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Consultant microbiologist Dr Frances Davies (Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust) is thanked for providing access to clinical strains. This work used the computing resources of CLIMB [33], the UK MEDical BIOinformatics partnership (UK Med-Bio, supported by Medical Research Council grant number MR/L01632X/1) and the Nottingham Trent University Hamilton High Performance Computing Cluster. We would like to thank Dave Baker and the QIB core sequencing team for WGS library preparation and sequencing.

Imperial Health Charity is thanked for contributing to registration fees for the Professional Doctorate studies of PS. LH was funded by UK Med-Bio (Medical Research Council grant number MR/L01632X/1). The research placement of FM was funded by Nottingham Trent University. LJH is funded by a Wellcome Trust Investigator Award (no. 100/974/C/13/Z); a BBSRC Norwich Research Park Bioscience Doctoral Training grant no. BB/M011216/1 (supervisor LJH, student MK); an Institute Strategic Programme Gut Microbes and Health grant no. BB/R012490/1 and its constituent projects BBS/E/F/000PR10353 and BBS/E/F/000PR10356; and an Institute Strategic Programme Gut Health and Food Safety grant no. BB/J004529/1 to LJH.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Authors.

Keywords

  • Antibiotic-associated haemorrhagic colitis
  • Klebsiella michiganensis
  • Necrotizing enterocolitis
  • Tilimycin
  • Tillivaline

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Epidemiology
  • Microbiology
  • Molecular Biology
  • Genetics

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