Phylogenomics analysis of multidrug-resistant Elizabethkingia anophelis in industrial wastewater treatment plant

AIMSThis study investigated the phylogenetic relatedness of multidrug-resistant Elizabethkingia anophelis recovered from an industrial wastewater treatment plant (WWTPi). METHODS AND RESULTSThe wastewater samples were plated in brain heart infusion agar (4 mg/L ceftazidime, 8 mg/L meropenem, and 2 mg/L polimixin). Four isolates recovered from four stages of WWTPi (influent, aeration, decantation, and treated effluent) were identified and evaluated of susceptibility profiles in the VITEK 2 system. These strains identified as E. meningoseptica were confirmed to be E. anophelis by whole genomic sequencing (Miseq-Illumina) and showed antimicrobial resistance genes of β-lactams, aminoglycosides, and tetracycline's classes. The ribosomal multilocus sequence typing showed that they belong to the rST 65620 together with clinical strains. The phylogenomic tree revealed the similarity of our strains to those belonging to sublineage 11 and the single nucleotide polymorphism analysis confirmed that they belong to a single clade. CONCLUSIONSTo the best of our knowledge, this is the first study reporting the persistence of multidrug-resistant E. anophelis sublineage 11 along the wastewater treatment.