title: The first report of the vanC1 gene in Enterococcus faecium isolated from a human clinical specimen.
abstract: The vanC1 gene, which is chromosomally located, confers resistance to vancomycin and serves as a species marker for Enterococcus gallinarum. Enterococcus faecium TJ4031 was isolated from a blood culture and harbours the vanC1gene. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays were performed to detect vanXYc and vanTc genes. Only the vanXYc gene was found in the E. faecium TJ4031 isolate. The minimum inhibitory concentrations of vancomycin and teicoplanin were 2 µg/mL and 1 µg/mL, respectively. Real-time reverse transcription-PCR results revealed that the vanC1and vanXYc genes were not expressed. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and southern hybridisation results showed that the vanC1 gene was encoded in the chromosome. E. faecalis isolated from animals has been reported to harbour vanC1gene. However, this study is the first to report the presence of the vanC1gene in E. faecium of human origin. Additionally, our research showed the vanC1gene cannot serve as a species-specific gene of E. gallinarum and that it is able to be transferred between bacteria. Although the resistance marker is not expressed in the strain, our results showed that E. faecium could acquire the vanC1gene from different species.
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China.
authors.forename: Mingyue
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China.
authors.forename: Yue
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China.
authors.forename: Zhongju
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China.
authors.forename: Xuhui
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China.
authors.forename: Ziyong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Sun