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Plasmid transmission case study (mobile elements)

Plamsid transmission case study (mobile elements)
Pathogen and AMR epidemiology is not just about tracking strains, it’s also about tracking the spread of the AMR mechanisms.

In the previous sections, we discussed the use of core genome analysis to monitor or investigate transmission of AMR within a population of the same species.

This method is very useful in many cases, even when AMR mechanisms are gene based rather than variant based. However, hospital-acquired pathogens in particular can swap genomic material in a process called ‘conjugation’ (for more information see here). This allows for the transfer of AMR mechanisms resident on plasmids to jump from one pathogen to another, as explained in step 1.9.

In a hospital setting this can make the identification of a problem challenging as typically outbreaks are identified first at the species or genus level. From a genomic perspective this can create challenges if using short read sequencing, since identification of plasmids using this technology is not accurate. Long-read sequencing technology enabled the comparative analysis of plasmids within the study set.

Characterisation of a plasmid outbreak in an Australian hospital

The authors identified 49 cases of NDM carrying infections across a range of species (41 distinct strains). Long read sequencing technology was able to allow for comparative analysis of plasmids within the study set.

The study identified two plasmids, IncN and IncX3, which carried the resistance genes NDM-1 and NDM-5/NDM-7, respectively. These plasmids were likely responsible for the transmission of carbapenem resistance within the hospital.

Do plasmids play a large role in the spread of AMR in your pathogen of choice? If they do, provide a link to relevant plasmid transmission studies in the box below and explain the main findings.

© Wellcome Connecting Science
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Antimicrobial Databases and Genotype Prediction: Data Sharing and Analysis

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