2017/12/07 by Marta Rozwandowicz, M Rozwandowicz, M S M Brouwer +13 · 5 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · #Antibiotic Resistance in Bacteria #Enterobacteriaceae and Cronobacter Research #Plant Pathogenic Bacteria Studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/jac/dkx488
openalex publication_date 2017/12/07 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Bacterial antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is constantly evolving and horizontal gene transfer through plasmids plays a major role. The identification of plasmid characteristics and their association with different bacterial hosts provides crucial knowledge that is essential to understand the contribution of plasmids to the transmission of AMR determinants. Molecular identification of plasmid and strain genotypes elicits a distinction between spread of AMR genes by plasmids and dissemination of these genes by spread of bacterial clones. For this reason several methods are used to type the plasmids, e.g. PCR-based replicon typing (PBRT) or relaxase typing. Currently, there are 28 known plasmid types in Enterobacteriaceae distinguished by PBRT. Frequently reported plasmids [IncF, IncI, IncA/C, IncL (previously designated IncL/M), IncN and IncH] are the ones that bear the greatest variety of resistance genes. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of all known AMR-related plasmid families in Enterobacteriaceae, the resistance genes they carry and their geographical distribution.