Plasmids in antibiotic susceptible and antibiotic resistant commensal Escherichia coli from healthy Australian adults

•Plasmids in commensal antibiotic susceptible and resistant E. coli were compared.•Using PCR-based replicon typing only the B/O replicon was resistance-associated.•The B/O replicon PCR also detected Z plasmids.•Further typing tools were developed to detect and distinguish B/O and Z plasmids.•Transfer in the human gut was detected without antibiotic selection. A collection of 111 commensal Escherichia coli isolated from 84 faecal samples from healthy Australian adults were screened using PCR-based replicon typing. Each isolate represented a distinct strain found in a particular faecal sample. Fifty-one isolates were resistant to one or more of 12 antibiotics tested. FII and FIB replicons were most common and usually found together. The FII replicon was detected in 63 isolates (35 susceptible, 28 resistant), the FIB replicon was present in 65 (32 susceptible, 33 resistant) and 54 (30 susceptible, 24 resistant) included both. Other replicon types were found infrequently (A/C, I1, K, L/M, P, R, Y, FIA and FIC) or not at all (HI1, HI2, N, T, U, W, X). Only the B/O amplicon, found in 21 resistant but only 4 susceptible isolates, was associated with antibiotic resistance. Detailed analysis of this group revealed that the B/O PCR also detected Z plasmids of several distinguishable types. PCR assays were developed to detect the two repA genes (repABKI and repAZ) found in members of the I-complex (I, B/O, K and Z plasmids). These assays distinguished the B/O and Z plasmids detected by the original “B/O” PCR. One isolate carried repABKI and the remainder carried repAZ. These genes were also detected in further isolates in the collection. Conjugative transfer of resistance genes was detected for the B/O plasmid and two Z groups. Evidence for transfer of repAZ plasmids in the human colon in the absence of antibiotic selection was also obtained.