ABSTRACTOuter membrane proteins (OMPs) serve as the permeability channels for nutrients, toxins, and antibiotics. InEscherichia coli, OmpA has been shown to be involved in bacterial virulence, and OmpC is related to multidrug resistance. However, it is unclear whether OmpC also has a role in the virulence ofE. coli. The aims of this study were to characterize the role of OmpC in antimicrobial resistance and bacterial virulence inE. coli. TheompCdeletion mutant showed significantly decreased susceptibility to carbapenems and cefepime. To investigate the survival ofE. coliexposed to the innate immune system, a human blood bactericidal assay showed that theompCmutant increased survival in blood and serum but not in complement-inactivated serum. These effects were also demonstrated in the natural selection of OmpC mutants. Also, C1q interacted withE. colithrough a complex of antibodies bound to OmpC as a major target. Bacterial survival was increased in the wild-type strain in a dose-dependent manner by adding free recombinant OmpC protein or anti-C1q antibody to human serum. These results demonstrated that the interaction of OmpC-specific antibody and C1q was the key step in initiating the antibody-dependent classical pathway for the clearance of OmpC-expressingE. coli. Anti-OmpC antibody was detected in human sera, indicating that OmpC is an immunogen. These data indicate that the loss of OmpC inE. coliis resistant to not only antibiotics, but also the serum bactericidal effect, which is mediated from the C1q and anti-OmpC antibody-dependent classical pathway.

Our study suggests that the decreased susceptibility to carbapenems in E. coli in the hospital might arise by the stepwise accumulations of multiple drug-resistance determinants in different clones.

Objectives: To investigate the role of a plasmid bearing the erm(B) gene on the prevalence of the macrolide, lincosamide and group B streptogramin (MLS B ) phenotype of group A streptococci (GAS) and to characterize the plasmid and determine the clonal relation between the erythromycin-resistant isolates.Methods: Two hundred and five erythromycin-resistant GAS isolates were collected from 1990 to 2006. Colony hybridization, PCR, plasmid curing and PFGE techniques were used to analyse the mechanisms behind the phenotypes.Results: Among the 56 isolates with constitutive MLS B (cMLS B ) resistance, 53 isolates harboured a plasmid, pA15, of 19 kb. erm(B) was on pA15 and it confered a cMLS B resistance phenotype. The prevalence rate of the pA15-containing isolates was 36.3% from 1993 to 1995, but the plasmid could not be detected from 2004 to 2006. To link the high-level resistance to pA15, clinical isolate A15 was selected and pA15 was cured by novobiocin. In the plasmid-cured strain SW503, the erythromycin MIC decreased from 256 to 0.032 mg/L. By electroporation, pA15 was re-introduced into the plasmid-cured erythromycin-susceptible strain, and the high-level erythromycin resistance was restored. Plasmid pA15 was also transferred to group B streptococci and group C streptococci by electroporation. In all the pA15-containing isolates, emm1 type was present and pulse type J was predominant (48 of 54 isolates). Conclusions:The plasmid pA15 mediated cMLS B resistance in the mid-1990s, but pA15 was not detected in the clinical isolates from 2004 onwards, which correlates with the absence of cMLS B resistance in this region.

GyrA mutations are the major mechanisms associated with quinolone-resistant Salmonella isolates in Taiwan. Overproduction of efflux pump genes and the presence of qnr and oqxAB play additional roles in reduced susceptibility to quinolones.