ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol.
Sec. Antibiotic Resistance and New Antimicrobial drugs
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2025.1594982
This article is part of the Research TopicCarbapenem-Resistant Acinetobacter spp.: Novel Resistance Mechanism and Genome CharacteristicsView all 4 articles
A strain defined as a novel species in the Acinetobacter genus co-harboring chromosomal associated tet(X3) and plasmid associated blaNDM-1 from a beef cattle farm in Hebei, China
Provisionally accepted
Jiyu Zhang1*
Qing Wang2Yanming Wei2
Muhammad Shoaib1
Yanhua Qiu1Chao Zhang1Guonian Dai1Honglin Lin2
Weiwei Wang1*- 1Lanzhou Institute of Husbandry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Lanzhou, China
- 2College of Veterinary Medicine, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou, Gansu Province, China
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The co-existence phenomenon of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), particularly of last-resort antibiotics in multi-drug resistant (MDR) bacteria, is of particular concern in the least studied bacterial species. In 2023, we isolated a strain (M2) co-carrying blaNDM-1 and tet(X3) identified as a novel species of Acinetobacter genus from the sludge of a commercial bovine farm in Hebei province, China. This strain was isolated from a MacConkey plate containing meropenem, showing resistance to meropenem, ampicillin, ceftazidime, cefepime, gentamicin, kanamycin, fosfomycin, imipenem, ertapenem, and tetracycline. Although this strain carried tet(X3), it was susceptible to tigecycline, omadacycline, and doxycycline. Oxford nanopore sequencing confirmed that this strain carried 11 types of ARGs, multiple metal resistance genes (MRGs), and the genes encoding virulence factors (VFs). The blaNDM-1 was located in the skeleton, ISAba125-blaNDM-1-bleMBL-trpF. This skeleton was carried by an ISAba14-mediated rolling-circle-like structure in pM2-2-NDM-1 (rep_cluster_481). Integrative and Conjugative Elements (ICEs) and the pdif module driven by the XerCD site-specific recombination system (XerCD SSR) related to the horizontal transfer of ARGs were identified in this plasmid. The tet(X3) gene was mediated by ISVsa3 to form the skeleton, ISVsa3-XerD-tet(X3)-res-ISVsa3, in the chromosome.The co-occurrence of blaNDM and tet(X) in a novel species of the Acinetobacter genus hints that substantial undiscovered bacteria co-carrying high-risk ARGs are concealing in the agroecological system, which should cause particular concern.
Keywords: Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), tet(X), BlaNDM, Acinetobacter, multi-drug resistance, pdif module
Received: 17 Mar 2025; Accepted: 10 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Wang, Wei, Shoaib, Qiu, Zhang, Dai, Lin and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Jiyu Zhang, Lanzhou Institute of Husbandry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Lanzhou, China
Weiwei Wang, Lanzhou Institute of Husbandry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Lanzhou, China
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