Login (DCU Staff Only)
Login (DCU Staff Only)

DORAS | DCU Research Repository

Explore open access research and scholarly works from DCU

Advanced Search

Genomic characterisation of emerging Enterococcus faecium vanA types from 2013 to 2020 in an Australian public hospital

O'Toole, Ronan F. orcid logoORCID: 0000-0002-4579-4479, Covalciuc, Vitalie, Cooke, Ana, Thilliez, Gaetan orcid logoORCID: 0000-0001-8650-4477, Finlay, Emma K., Leong, Kelvin W.C., Farthing, Vanessa and van Hal, Sebastiaan J. (2025) Genomic characterisation of emerging Enterococcus faecium vanA types from 2013 to 2020 in an Australian public hospital. Journal of Global Antimicrobial Resistance, 42 . pp. 42-50. ISSN 2213-7165

Abstract
Objective : High rates of resistance to vancomycin are now being reported among invasive isolates of Enterococcus faecium, a major cause of healthcare-associated infections globally. The objective of this study was to generate a better understanding of emerging vanA sequence types (ST) of the pathogen. Methods : A temporal analysis of isolates collected from 2013 to 2020 at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, a large Australian hospital, was performed using genome sequencing. Relative frequencies of multi-locus ST, antibiotic resistance markers, and virulence genes were determined. Results : ST1421 was the dominant vanA ST from 2014 to 2018. ST1424, which was not evident in the 2013 and 2014 isolates, emerged in 2016 and became the dominant vanA type in 2020 (65 of isolates). vanA ST80 was less common among the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital vanA isolates. Direct comparison of 120 genomes of each ST revealed significantly higher encoded resistance to aminocyclitols (e.g. spectinomycin) and folate-pathway antagonists (e.g. trimethoprim) in ST1421 and ST1424 compared to ST80. Furthermore, significantly higher carriage of enterococcal virulence genes ecbA (E. faecium collagen binding protein A) and hylEfm (glycosyl hydrolase) was found in ST1421 and ST1424 than in ST80. Conclusions : Newer vanA ST ST1421 and ST1424 harboured several antibiotic resistance loci and virulence genes at significantly higher levels than those observed in ST80. Ongoing genomic surveillance is warranted for the detection of new variants of E. faecium and characterisation of their encoded resistance and virulence.
Metadata
Item Type:Article (Published)
Refereed:Yes
Uncontrolled Keywords:Healthcare-associated infection, Vancomycin, Multi-locus sequence typing, Whole genome sequencing, Antibiotic resistance, Virulence
Subjects:Biological Sciences > Microbiology
Humanities > Biological Sciences > Microbiology
Biological Sciences > Bioinformatics
Humanities > Biological Sciences > Bioinformatics
DCU Faculties and Centres:DCU Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Science and Health
DCU Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Science and Health > School of Biotechnology
Publisher:Elsevier BV
Official URL:https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/...
Copyright Information:Authors
ID Code:32057
Deposited On:06 Jan 2026 09:49 by Gaetan Thilliez . Last Modified 06 Jan 2026 09:49
Documents

Full text available as:

[thumbnail of JGAR_OToole_et_al_2025.pdf]
Preview
PDF - Requires a PDF viewer such as GSview, Xpdf or Adobe Acrobat Reader
Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0
3MB
Metrics

Altmetric Badge

Dimensions Badge

Downloads

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

Archive Staff Only: edit this record