Draft genome sequence and biofilm production of a carbapenemase-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae (KpR405) sequence type 405 strain isolated in Italy

Abstract

Rapid identification and characterization of multidrug-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae strains is essential to diagnose severe infections in patients. In clinical routine practice, K. pneumoniae is frequently identified and characterized for outbreak investigation. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis or multilocus sequence typing could be used, but, unfortunately, these methods are time-consuming, laborious, expensive, and do not provide any information about the presence of resistance and virulence genes. In recent years, the decreasing cost of next-generation sequencing and its easy use have led to it being considered a useful method, not only for outbreak surveillance but also for rapid identification and evaluation, in a single step, of virulence factors and resistance genes. Carbapenem-resistant strains of K. pneumoniae have become endemic in Italy, and in these strains the ability to form biofilms, communities of bacteria fixed in an extracellular matrix, can defend the pathogen from the host immune response as well as from antibiotics, improving its persistence in epithelial tissues and on medical device surfaces.