title: Diversity of antibiotic resistance integrative and conjugative elements among haemophili.
abstract: The objective of this study was to investigate the sequence diversity in a single country of a family of integrative and conjugative elements (ICEs) that are vectors of antibiotic resistance in Haemophilus influenzae and Haemophilus parainfluenzae, and test the hypothesis that they emerged from a single lineage. Sixty subjects aged 9 months - 13 years were recruited and oropharyngeal samples cultured. Up to 10 morphologically distinct Pasteurellaceae spp. were purified, and then the species were determined and differentiated by partial sequence analysis of 16S rDNA and mdh, respectively. ICEs were detected by PCR directed at five genes distributed evenly across the ICE. These amplicons were sequenced and aligned by the neighbour-joining algorithm. A total of 339 distinguishable isolates were cultured. ICEs with all 5 genes present were found in 9 of 110 (8 %) H. influenzae and 21 of 211 (10 %) H. parainfluenzae, respectively. ICEs were not detected among the other Pasteurellaceae. A total of 20 of 60 (33 %) children carried at least 1 oropharyngeal isolate with an ICE possessing all 5 genes. One of the five genes, integrase, however, consisted of two lineages, one of which was highly associated with H. influenzae. The topology of neighbour-joining trees of the remaining four ICE genes was compared and showed a lack of congruence; though, the genes form a common pool among H. influenzae and H. parainfluenzae. This family of antibiotic resistance ICEs was prevalent among the children studied, was genetically diverse, formed a large gene pool, transferred between H. influenzae and H. parainfluenzae, lacked population structure and possessed features suggestive of panmixia, all indicating it has not recently emerged from a single source.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology - Infectious Diseases, University Hospital of Alexandroupolis, Democritus University of Thrace, Alexandroupolis 68100, Greece.
authors.forename: Ioanna D
authors.initials: ID
authors.lastname: Dimopoulou
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology - Infectious Diseases, University Hospital of Alexandroupolis, Democritus University of Thrace, Alexandroupolis 68100, Greece.
authors.forename: Sofia I
authors.initials: SI
authors.lastname: Kartali
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Rosalind M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Harding
authors.affiliation: Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology, John Radcliffe Hospital, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 9DU, UK.
authors.forename: Tim E A
authors.initials: TEA
authors.lastname: Peto
authors.affiliation: Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology, John Radcliffe Hospital, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 9DU, UK.
authors.forename: Derrick W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Crook
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D004351:Drug Resistance / Q000235:genetics*; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006115:Greece; D006192:Haemophilus Infections / Q000382:microbiology; D006193:Haemophilus influenzae / Q000145:classification / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D044135:Haemophilus parainfluenzae / Q000145:classification / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D019426:Integrases / Q000235:genetics; D020071:Interspersed Repetitive Sequences / Q000235:genetics*; D008291:Malate Dehydrogenase / Q000235:genetics; D009960:Oropharynx / Q000382:microbiology; D010802:Phylogeny; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017385:Sequence Homology
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S; D008291:Malate Dehydrogenase; D019426:Integrases