TY - JOUR
T1 - Global emergence of Acinetobacter baumannii International Clone 12 predominantly found in the Middle East
AU - Karah, Nabil
AU - Faille, Nathan
AU - Allard, Nancy
AU - Grenier, Frédéric
AU - Abou-Fayad, Antoine
AU - Higgins, Paul G.
AU - Al-Hassan, Leena
AU - Evans, Benjamin A.
AU - Poirel, Laurent
AU - Bonnin, Rémy
AU - Hammerum, Anette M.
AU - Hansen, Frank
AU - Rafei, Rayane
AU - Hamze, Monzer
AU - Didelot, Xavier
AU - Castillo-Ramirez, Santiago
AU - Lévesque, Simon
AU - Rodrigue, Sébastien
AU - Uhlin, Bernt Eric
AU - Haraoui, Louis-Patrick
N1 - Funding information: L.-P.H. received support from the New Frontiers in Research Fund, Canada (NFRFE-2019-00444), the Fonds de Recherche du Quebec – Santé (282182) and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) (GS-0000000256). B.E.U. received support from the Swedish Research Council (grant 2019-01720) and the Faculty of Medicine, Umeå University (Insamlingsstiftelsen grant 2021-2023). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation or the decision to submit the work for publication.
PY - 2025/11/28
Y1 - 2025/11/28
N2 - Infections caused by carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAB) are of great concern, as mortality is high, and treatment options are very limited. Despite having among the highest rates reported worldwide, scarce genomic data are available on CRAB strains from the Middle East. Here, we report the global emergence of a novel International Clone (IC), designated IC12, based on the epidemiological, phenotypic and genome sequencing data (short reads and long reads) of a set of 60 A. baumannii isolates belonging to multilocus sequence type 158 (Pasteur scheme). IC12, prevailing in the Middle East since 2007, has also been found in Europe, Asia and South America. Alleles OXA-65 and ADC-117, coded by the blaOXA-51-like and blaADCA. baumannii-intrinsic genes, respectively, were hallmarks shared by all the isolates. Plasmid pIC12-2 (80,000 bp), which carries a repAci6 replication initiator (RP-T1) and a type IV conjugative transfer system, played a major role in the antimicrobial resistance profile of 54/60 of the IC12 isolates. This resistance was mediated by three mobile genetic elements, namely Tn2008, MITEAb-IC12 and TnaphA6. All four Peruvian IC12 isolates lacked pIC12-2 and carried a different set of plasmids. Two of the Peruvian isolates carried a chromosomal resistance island of 79,396 bp long (designated IC12-RI) marked by the occurrence of tet(X3). The global spread of IC12 is worrying and calls for further studies on the virulence features and clinical impact of this clone.
AB - Infections caused by carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAB) are of great concern, as mortality is high, and treatment options are very limited. Despite having among the highest rates reported worldwide, scarce genomic data are available on CRAB strains from the Middle East. Here, we report the global emergence of a novel International Clone (IC), designated IC12, based on the epidemiological, phenotypic and genome sequencing data (short reads and long reads) of a set of 60 A. baumannii isolates belonging to multilocus sequence type 158 (Pasteur scheme). IC12, prevailing in the Middle East since 2007, has also been found in Europe, Asia and South America. Alleles OXA-65 and ADC-117, coded by the blaOXA-51-like and blaADCA. baumannii-intrinsic genes, respectively, were hallmarks shared by all the isolates. Plasmid pIC12-2 (80,000 bp), which carries a repAci6 replication initiator (RP-T1) and a type IV conjugative transfer system, played a major role in the antimicrobial resistance profile of 54/60 of the IC12 isolates. This resistance was mediated by three mobile genetic elements, namely Tn2008, MITEAb-IC12 and TnaphA6. All four Peruvian IC12 isolates lacked pIC12-2 and carried a different set of plasmids. Two of the Peruvian isolates carried a chromosomal resistance island of 79,396 bp long (designated IC12-RI) marked by the occurrence of tet(X3). The global spread of IC12 is worrying and calls for further studies on the virulence features and clinical impact of this clone.
KW - Acinetobacter baumannii
KW - Carbapenem-resistant
KW - genomic sequencing
KW - International Clone 12
KW - Middle East
KW - ST158
KW - tet(X3)
KW - carbapenem-resistant
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=105023334525&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1099/mgen.0.001572
DO - 10.1099/mgen.0.001572
M3 - Article
SN - 2057-5858
VL - 11
JO - Microbial Genomics
JF - Microbial Genomics
IS - 11
M1 - 001572
ER -