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The major of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (VREfm) carrying vanB2 gene had been found by our group in Taiwan. These are extremely unusual findings because VREfm isolates usually contain the vanA or vanB gene, not the vanB2 gene. Therefore, we are very interesting in studying the strains with vanB2 gene. Parts of vanB2 gene cluster of these VREfm had been sequenced before. The three objective of this study are (1) to complete vanB2 gene clusters (2) to analyze the heterogeneity between the vanB and vanB2 gene (3) to Figure out which there is any on vanB2 gene which will affect site on vancomycin-resistance. Our laboratory had sequenced the whole genes of vanYB2 gene, vanWB2, vanHB2 and vanB2 gene and the part of vanXB2 gene before (It totally are 4354 bp). I used the PCR and DNA autosequence methods to complete the remaining vanB2 gene clusters and used the single primer PCR to sequence the 5' and 3' -end of vanB2 gene cluster. The sequences were found to be homologous to the following genes: the vanRB2 gene (94.7% homology) has 35 nucleotides different from the vanRB gene. The vanSB2 gene (96.4% homology)has 49 nucleotides different from the vanSB gene. The spacer I (94.9% homology)has 9 nucleotides different from the vanB gene cluster. The vanYB2 (94.1% homology)has 48 nucleotides different from vanYB gene. The vanWB2 (95.7% homology)has 99 nucleotides different from vanWB gene. The vanHB2 (94.9% homology) has 50 nucleotides different from vanB gene. The vanB2 (95.5% homology)has 90 nucleotides different with vanB gene. The spacer II (84.2% homology)has 3 nucleotides different from the vanB gene cluster and the vanXB2 (95.4% homology) has 28 nucleotides different from vanXB gene. A variety of molecular typing methods have been used to investigate these VREfm strain, including pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD), Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), and restriction enzyme digestion. To determine the heterogeneity of these VREfm, PCR and restriction enzyme digestions have been analyzed on these VREfm with vanB2 gene. The results showed that these VREfm were found to have the same vanB2 gene cluster, suggesting that it may be derived from a single clone. Besides, the nontranscribed area of vanB gene cluster (between vanSB and vanYB genes) of these isolates have also been amplified by primers VB2047F and VB2596R. The sizes of PCR products of these isolates were found to be same. These results suggested that vanB2 gene clusters in these VREfm isolates are homogeneous in Taiwan. The PCR method has been used to find that vanB2 gene cluster in these VREfm isolates may be carry by transposon-Tn5382. We also found that VREfm with low MICs of vancomycin have insertion sequence(1.7kb) in upstream of Tn5382. Besides, there have 1.2 kb insertion sequence in downstream of Tn5382 when VREfm have high MICs of vancomycin. The functions of these insertion sequences remain to be solved.
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