ISSN: 0973-7510

E-ISSN: 2581-690X

Research Article | Open Access
Priyadharshini Sekar1 , Jeevan Malaiyan2 and Padma Krishnan2
1Department of Microbiology, Dr. ALM PG IBMS, University of Madras, Chennai, India.
2Department of Microbiology, Sri Muthukumaran Medical College Hospital and Research Centre, Kundrathur, Chennai, India.
Article Number: 10679 | © The Author(s). 2025
J Pure Appl Microbiol. 2025;19(4):2686-2694. https://doi.org/10.22207/JPAM.19.4.04
Received: 11 June 2025 | Accepted: 21 August 2025 | Published online: 01 October 2025
Issue online: December 2025
Abstract

Indiscriminate use of antibiotics has exerted selective pressure on the gut microbiota, increasing the prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria among the commensal population. However, in a state of intestinal dysbiosis, the patient’s flora contributes to the spreading of genes bearing determinants for antibiotic-resistance via horizontal transfer of drug-resistant plasmid. Although the in vivo spread of antibiotic resistance through this mechanism is well-known, limited studies demonstrate evidence of it occurring between commensal and pathogenic Enterobacteriaceae in patients. This study investigated the possibility of horizontal transfer of plasmids bearing blaCTX-M, from a gut E. coli to pathogenic Enterobacteriaceae and vice versa. Clinical specimens from twelve patients were screened for beta-lactamase producing Enterobacteriaceae, followed by isolating corresponding gut Enterobacteriaceae from stool samples. Standard bacteriological procedures and antibiotic sensitivity testing were performed to identify and confirm ESBL, AmpC beta-lactamase, and carbapenemase producers. PCR to confirm beta-lactamase genes, ERIC PCR to assess clonal similarity, PCR-based replicon typing for plasmid profiling, conjugation by broth mating assay for evaluating the horizontal transfer of plasmids, were performed to study the possibility of horizontal transfer of blaCTX-M gene between gut and pathogenic E. coli. In two patients, we demonstrated the potential for horizontal transfer of blaCTX-M carrying IncFIA and IncFIB plasmids between uropathogenic E. coli and gut E. coli, in vivo. This study confirms in vivo horizontal transfer of plasmids bearing blaCTX-M types IncFIA and IncFIB between gut commensal and uropathogenic E. coli, highlighting the need for stringent antibiotic stewardship to curb multidrug-resistant pathogen spread.

Keywords

HGT, Uropathogenic E. coli, IncFIA, IncFIB, Plasmids

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© The Author(s) 2025. Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License which permits unrestricted use, sharing, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.