Characterisation of meropenem-resistant Bacillus sp. FW 1 isolated from biogas digestate

Abstract

Recently a Bacillus sp. strain FW 1 was isolated from biogas digestate and shown to have novel resistance to meropenem (MEM), of critical importance in human medicine. MEM-resistance has so far only been described for one species within the genus Bacillus, that is, Bacillus cereus. Bacillus is an abundant representative of the microbial community in biogas digesters and consequently, the finding indicates a risk of spreading such resistance when using the digestate as fertiliser. In this study, the Bacillus strain was characterised and classified as Heyndrickxia oleronia (previous Bacillus oleronius), previously not described to harbour MEM-resistance. The mechanism of resistance was explored by metallo-beta-lactamase (MBL) production, mapping of carbapenemase genes and genome analysis. The transferability of MEM-resistance in strain FW 1 was investigated by plasmid transformation/conjugation, combined with genome analysis. The results confirmed MBL production for both strain FW 1 and the type strain H. oleronia DSM 9356(T). However, elevated MEM resistance was found for strain FW 1, which was suggested to be caused by the production of unclassified carbapenemase, or overexpression of MBL. Moreover, the results suggest that the MEM-resistance of strain FW 1 is not transferable, thus representing a limited risk of MEM-resistance spread to the environment when using digestate on arable land.

Published in

Environmental Microbiology Reports
2023, volume: 16, number: 1
Publisher: WILEY

SLU Authors

• Sun, He

  • Department of Molecular Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Schnürer, Anna

  • Department of Molecular Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Associated SLU-program

AMR: Bacteria

Global goals (SDG)

SDG3 Good health and well-being

UKÄ Subject classification

Microbiology
Environmental Sciences

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1758-2229.13217

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/127114