Klebsiella pneumoniae Genome sequencing. Klebsiella pneumoniae

Hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae (hvKp) can cause life-threatening infections in otherwise healthy people; recent acquisition of antimicrobial resistance has raised the alarm on this problematic pathogen. Defining the genomic elements that confer the hypervirulent phenotype and their relative importance may enable new preventative or therapeutic measures. To achieve this goal, isogenic mutant constructs of four hypervirulent clinical isolates producing either the canonical K1,K2,K20, or K54 capsule type were created. Targets for genetic modification include curing the hvKp-specific virulence plasmid (pVir), which encode for aerobactin (iucA) and regulators of the mucoid phenotype (rmpA and rmpA2), and deletion of chromosomally-bound yersiniabactin (irp2) or colibactin (clbBC). Additionally, double mutant with the loss of pVir/yersiniabactin and rmpA/aerobactin were also created.