Novel Plasmid-Borne Fimbriae-Associated Gene Cluster Participates in Biofilm Formation in Escherichia coli

Molecular Epidemiology of Plasmid-Mediated Types 1 and 3 Fimbriae Associated with Biofilm Formation in Multidrug Resistant Escherichia coli from Diseased Food Animals in Guangdong, China

“…Consistently, WGS analysis showed that the strong biofilm producers harbored multiple ARGs including the florfenicol resistance gene floR and the MDR efflux pump oqxAB conferring resistance to olaquindox and ciprofloxacin. Furthermore, oqxAB and floR were identified to colocate with mrkABCDF or fimACDH on conjugative IncX1 and IncFII plasmids in the present and previous studies ( 10 , 11 , 17 , 20 ). Olaquindox has been used as a growth promoter in pigs until May 2018 in China, and florfenicol was also used in Chinese pig farms especially for the treatment of swine respiratory disease.…”

“…This plasmid was almost identical to fim -carrying IncFII plasmid p253 (accession no. MT648288 ) from a pig E. coli isolate reported in our previous study ( 11 ) except for an inversion of the multidrug resistance region (MRR) (~33.5 kb), containing 11 ARGs including oqxAB and floR ( Fig. 5a ).…”

“…We found that 7.01% of the isolates were strong biofilm producing E. coli and the prevalence of this phenotype was less than that found for uropathogenic E. coli (UPEC) isolates (24.8%) ( 19 ). The plasmid-mediated type 3 fimbriae encoded by the mrkABCDF operon and type 1 fimbriae encoded by fimACDH operon were identified to confer a strong biofilm-forming phenotype to laboratory strains of E. coli as previously described ( 10 , 11 ). The complete mrkABCDF and fimACDH clusters were present in 34.96% and 5.7% of all strong biofilm producing E. coli , respectively, indicating that these two operons are major biofilm-associated factors in E. coli .…”

“…The first plasmid-borne type 1 gene cluster was found on an IncFII plasmid (pE110019_66) from an atypical Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli isolate ( 15 ). Subsequently, our laboratory identified a similar plasmid-borne type 1 fimbriae cluster fimACDH that could promote biofilm formation and was confirmed using the novel EZ-Tn5 transposon technique ( 11 ).…”

“…Most current research concerning biofilm-related infections is typically focused on chromosomal biofilm-associated factors of biofilm-forming bacteria ( 8 , 9 ). Interestingly, several studies have also reported that conjugative plasmids can promote biofilm formation on abiotic substance through the formation of surface fimbriae ( 10 – 12 ). Pili or fimbriae play versatile roles in bacterial physiology, and these can be associated with attachment, invasion, and cell motility, as well as with biofilm formation ( 13 , 14 ).…”