Identification of a Novel Plasmid Carryingin anStrain in China.

Abstract

Here, we identifiedin, which had not been previously observed to carry angene. The-harboringstrain AB18PR065 was isolated from pig feces from a slaughterhouse in Guangdong Province of China. The-carrying pAB18PR065 is 25,602 bp in size and could not be transferred in conjugation, transformation, and electroporation experiments, as we did not find any conjugation-related genes therein. pAB18PR065 harbors two copies of type II toxin-antitoxin systems, which are functional in plasmid stabilization and maintenance. pAB18PR065 shares similarity only with one recently identified plasmid, pAb-MCR4.3 (35,502 bp), from a clinicalstrain. It is likely that the emergence of pAb-MCR4.3 was due to the insertion of an 11,386-bp, IS-based, composite transposon into pAB18PR065. These data indicate thatwas captured by an-original plasmid via horizontal gene transfer.