RecC935H is associated with Divergent Evolutions of Clonal Group 258 Klebsiella pneumoniae

Clonal group 258 Klebsiella pneumoniae strains are notorious but their divergent evolutions were identified through analysis of 80 sequence type (ST) 258, 284 ST11, and 15 ST512 genomes. The serotypes of ST11 strains differed from those of ST258 and ST512. Genes blaKPC-2 and blaKPC-3 dominated carbapenem-resistance in ST258 strains, whereas they were found in ST11 and ST512, respectively. The carbapenem-resistance rates were 93.75%, 86.97%, and 100.0% among the ST258, ST11, and ST512 strains, respectively while the hypervirulence and carbapenem-resistance rates were 2.50%, 35.92%, and 0.00%, respectively. The wide carbapenem-resistance and the hypervirulence were determined by drug-resistance and virulence plasmids respectively. Except recA, recB, and recD, recC was significantly different: RecC935R for the three groups and RecC935H for ST11; RecC935H ST11 strains presented a higher rate of hypervirulence plus carbapenem-resistance than those carrying RecC935R. RecC935H and RecC935R presented the difference of an amino acid side chain, leading to the disappearance of the hydrogen bond. Single-Nucleotide Polymorphism analysis verified closer relationship between ST258 and ST512 than ST11. RecCR935H facilitated pK2044 to HS11286 (5.61 times) while wzy-K1 deletion exerted advantages on pKPHS2 to NTUH-K2044 (5.49 times). The retention rates of pK2044 in HS11286recC2804G+arr-3 kept over 80.0% in the 8 passages while those in HS11286recC2804A+arr-3 declined to less than 3.0% in the last 5 passages. In conclusion, different from ST258 and ST512, ST11 strains show an overwhelming propensity to become hypervirulent and carbapenem-resistant. RecCR935H mutation facilitates the transfer of virulence plasmids into carbapenem-resistant K. pneumoniae strains but decreases their retention in the strains.