Three bacterium-plasmid golden combinations facilitate the spread of ST11/CG258 carbapenemase-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae in China

Carbapenemase-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae (cpKP) poses serious threats to public health. Previous studies showed that only ST11/CG258-cpKP successfully disseminated in China, however, the underlying genetic bases are still unknown. We conducted a comprehensive genomic-epidemiology analysis on 420 cpKP isolates from 70 hospitals in 24 Chinese provinces during 2009-2017 based on short-/long-reads sequencing.

Three ‘golden’ combinations of host––blaKPC-carrying plasmids (Clade 3.1+3.2—IncFIIpHN7A8, Clade 3.1+3.2—IncFIIpHN7A8:IncR, Clade 3.3—IncFIIpHN7A8:IncpA1763-KPC) endowed cpKP with advantages both in genotypes (strong-correlation/co-evolution) and phenotypes (resistance/growth/competition), thereby facilitating nationwide spread of ST11/CG258-cpKP. Intriguingly, Bayesian skyline illustrated that the three ‘golden’ combinations might directly lead to the strong population expansion during 2007-2008 and subsequent maintenance of the dissemination of ST11/CG258-cpKP after 2008.

We tested drug-resistance profiles and proposed combination treatment regimens for CG258/non-CG258 cpKP. Our findings systematically revealed the molecular-epidemiology and genetic-basis for dissemination of Chinese ST11/CG258 cpKP and reminded us to monitor the ‘golden’ combinations of cpKP plasmid closely.