Genetic insights into spp., progenitor of the -like genes: a large-scale study.

spp. played pivotal ecological roles and were reported to be the progenitor of -like carbapenemase genes. However, it remained unknown which species was the progenitor of different OXA-48 carbapenemase variants. To address this issue, we analysed the largest collection of genomes to our knowledge and performed genetic and phenotypic analysis on collected from Zhejiang province, China. Our results suggested that -like was intrinsically carried by a few species and different -like variants were associated with different species; for instance, was associated with , and some and carried -like. The -like genes carried by were highly diverse. Comparatively, none of the genomes carried -like. Results of phylogenetic analysis supported the notion that OXA-48-like carbapenemase originated from different environmental species and was captured by clinical species, particularly . Different species distributed in different niches in Zhejiang province, i.e. (=12) and (=1) strains were all isolated from clinical settings and (=23) and (=2) were isolated from both hospital sewage and river water. genes in spp. from Zhejiang province were located on the chromosome. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study investigating the progenitor of different -like variants with a focus on the population. Results in this study highlighted the important role of species in the ecosystem, particularly as the major source of the notorious carbapenemase gene, . Control measures should be implemented to prevent further dissemination of such organisms in the hospital setting and the community.