Genetic analysis of antibiotic-resistance determinants in multidrug-resistant Shigella strains isolated from Chilean children

Abstract

A total of 162 clinical isolates of Shigella collected from children in a semi-rural community of Chile were examined for the presence of genetic determinants of resistance to ampicillin, chloramphenicol, tetracycline, and trimethoprim. Ampicillin resistance was most frequently associated with the presence of blaOXA in S. flexneri and with blaTEM in S. sonnei. The blaOXA gene but not blaTEM was located in class 1 integrons. The dhfrIa gene encoding for resistance to trimethoprim was associated to class 2 integrons and detected exclusively in S. flexneri, whereas dhfrIIIc was found in all S. sonnei strains and in 10% of the S. flexneri isolates. Cat, coding for choramphenicol resistance, and blaOXA genes were located in the chromosome in all cases, whereas tetA gene, coding for tetracycline resistance, and blaTEM, dhfrIa and dhfrIIIc genes were found either in the chromosome or in conjugative plasmids. Our results show a heterogenous distribution of antibiotic-resistance determinants between S. flexneri and S. sonnei.