Genomic characterization of bloqvIM-11-harbouring plasmids recovered from Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Objectives. To the best of our knowledge, no genomic descriptions of blayim-11-harbouring plasmids are available in literature so far. The aim of this study was to describe the genomic features of three blayim-11- harbouring plasmids recovered from Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolated in Argentina in different periods. Methods: blavim-11-harbouring plasmids from three clinical P. aeruginosa isolates were transferred by transformation into P. aeruginosa PAO-1. Then, genomic DNA of these transformants was extracted and sequenced using NovaSeq 6000 System-Illumina. De novo assemblies were generated using Unicycler pro- gram and reads were mapped against a reference genome of P. aeruginosa PAO-1. Plasmids sequences were predicted identifying the reads that did not map the reference sequence of PAO-1. These reads were recovered and assembled de novo. In silico predictions were carried out using bioinformatics tools. Results: One Plasmid (pP6VIM-11) was distributed in 2 contigs, a second plasmid (pPOta2VIM-11) was found in single contig, and the last one (pP936401VIM-11) was fragmented into 4 contigs. pP6VIM- 11 and pFOta2VIM-11 belonged to the IncP-18 group, displaying 64% of coverage and 83.9% of identity among them. pP936401VIM-1 plasmid corresponded to the IncN group. The bioinformatic analysis re- vealed that blayim-11 was located in a class 1 integron, flanked by insertion sequences, exhibiting potential for its dissemination. However, none of the plasmids were conjugative. Conclusion This study corresponded to the first description and deposit of blayim-11-harbouring plasmids in P. aeruginosa, which expands the limited knowledge about their molecular epidemiology. (c) 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of International Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)