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Characterisation of VanA and VanB elements from glycopeptide-resistant Enterococcus faecium from Greece

E. DEMERTZI, M-F.I. PALEPOU, M.E. KAUFMANN^*, A. AVLAMIS and N. WOODFORD

Antibiotic Resistance Monitoring and Reference Laboratory and *Laboratory of Hospital Infection, Central Public Health Laboratory,61 Colindale Avenue, London NW9 5HT and Microbiology Department, Laikon General Hospital, Athens, Greece

Corresponding author: Dr N. Woodford (e-mail: nwoodford{at}phls.org.uk).

Received 10 Oct. 2000; revised version received 1 Feb. 2001; accepted 5 Feb. 2001.

Abstract

Ten glycopeptide-resistant Enterococcus faecium isolates from separate patients in Laikon General Hospital, Athens were studied. Eight isolates had the VanA phenotype and represented variants of three strains based on SmaI macrorestriction banding patterns. Their VanA elements were compared with the prototype element, Tn1546, by an overlapping PCR method. Three related isolates contained resistance elements indistinguishable from Tn1546 (designated Greek type I). The other five isolates all contained identical elements that differed from Tn1546 by the presence of IS1251 between vanS and vanH, by a point mutation (G T) at nucleotide position 8234 within vanX and by a partial loss of transposition gene orf1 (designated Greek type II). Two distinct strains of E. Caecium with the VanB phenotype were obtained. HhaI digestion of an amplified fragment of the vanB gene indicated that both strains contained the vanB2 allele, and further PCR assays confirmed that the vanB2 gene cluster was located within a Tn5382-like element.

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