Skip to main content
Journal of Clinical Microbiology logoLink to Journal of Clinical Microbiology
. 1997 Nov;35(11):2966–2968. doi: 10.1128/jcm.35.11.2966-2968.1997

Strains of glycopeptide-resistant Enterococcus faecium can alter their van genotypes during an outbreak.

N Woodford 1, P R Chadwick 1, D Morrison 1, B D Cookson 1
PMCID: PMC230097  PMID: 9350769

Abstract

Two isolates of Enterococcus faecium with VanA glycopeptide resistance were isolated during a hospital outbreak of E. faecium with plasmid-mediated VanB resistance. Both were found to be identical to the VanB outbreak strain by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. The genotype of this strain changed from vanB to vanA through an intermediate isolate that contained both the vanA and vanB gene clusters on distinct plasmids.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (725.1 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Chadwick P. R., Oppenheim B. A., Fox A., Woodford N., Morgenstern G. R., Scarffe J. H. Epidemiology of an outbreak due to glycopeptide-resistant Enterococcus faecium on a leukaemia unit. J Hosp Infect. 1996 Nov;34(3):171–182. doi: 10.1016/s0195-6701(96)90063-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Hayden M. K., Trenholme G. M., Schultz J. E., Sahm D. F. In vivo development of teicoplanin resistance in a VanB Enterococcus faecium isolate. J Infect Dis. 1993 May;167(5):1224–1227. doi: 10.1093/infdis/167.5.1224. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Quintiliani R., Jr, Courvalin P. Characterization of Tn1547, a composite transposon flanked by the IS16 and IS256-like elements, that confers vancomycin resistance in Enterococcus faecalis BM4281. Gene. 1996 Jun 12;172(1):1–8. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(96)00110-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Tenover F. C., Arbeit R. D., Goering R. V., Mickelsen P. A., Murray B. E., Persing D. H., Swaminathan B. Interpreting chromosomal DNA restriction patterns produced by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis: criteria for bacterial strain typing. J Clin Microbiol. 1995 Sep;33(9):2233–2239. doi: 10.1128/jcm.33.9.2233-2239.1995. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Woodford N., Johnson A. P., Morrison D., Speller D. C. Current perspectives on glycopeptide resistance. Clin Microbiol Rev. 1995 Oct;8(4):585–615. doi: 10.1128/cmr.8.4.585. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Woodford N., Morrison D., Johnson A. P., Bateman A. C., Hastings J. G., Elliott T. S., Cookson B. Plasmid-mediated vanB glycopeptide resistance in enterococci. Microb Drug Resist. 1995 Fall;1(3):235–240. doi: 10.1089/mdr.1995.1.235. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Journal of Clinical Microbiology are provided here courtesy of American Society for Microbiology (ASM)

RESOURCES