Tracking recombination events that occur in conjugative virulence plasmid p15WZ-82_Vir during the transmission process

Abstract

We recently reported the recovery of a conjugative virulence plasmid, p15WZ-82_Vir, from a clinical Klebsiella variicola strain. In this study, we found that several new plasmid types were generated due to genetic rearrangement. Partial integration of plasmid p15WZ-82_Vir with existing plasmids such as resistance plasmids by different homologous recombination events was observable in three recipient strains. Such recombination events enable the formation of various types of mosaic plasmids simultaneously carrying virulence-encoding and antibiotic resistance-encoding genes as well as genes involved in plasmid conjugation, which promote transmission of various virulence-encoding and resistance-encoding elements among pathogens. Our data also suggest that these conjugative events may play an integral role in the development of novel mosaic plasmids, which is vital for plasmid evolution. IMPORTANCE Although they are often nonconjugative, large virulence plasmids are increasingly detected in clinical K. pneumoniae and contribute to the hypervirulence phenotype of this organism. In this study, we demonstrated that the virulence-encoding region that originated from virulence plasmid pLVPK actively interacted with different types of plasmids via homologous recombination to generate new conjugative plasmids. This report provides insights into the evolution of self-transmissible plasmids carrying genetic elements encoding both hypervirulent and multidrug-resistant phenotypes, which facilitate the rapid development of clinical K. pneumoniae strains that are hypervirulent and multidrug resistant.