Abstract
This study highlights the prevalence of aminoglycoside-modifying enzyme genes and virulence determinants among clinical enterococci with high-level aminoglycoside resistance in Inner Mongolia, China. Screening for high-level aminoglycoside resistance against 117 enterococcal clinical isolates was performed using the agar-screening method. Out of the 117 enterococcal isolates, 46 were selected for further detection and determination of the distribution of aminoglycoside-modifying enzyme-encoding genes and virulence determinants using polymerase chain reaction -based methods. Enterococcus faecium and Enterococcus faecalis were identified as the species of greatest clinical importance. The aac(6')-Ie-aph(2″)-Ia and ant(6')-Ia genes were found to be the most common aminoglycoside-modifying enzyme genes among high-level gentamicin resistance and high-level streptomycin resistance isolates, respectively. Moreover, gelE was the most common virulence gene among high-level aminoglycoside resistance isolates. Compared to Enterococcus faecium, Enterococcus faecalis harbored multiple virulence determinants. The results further indicated no correlation between aminoglycoside-modifying enzyme gene profiles and the distribution of virulence genes among the enterococcal isolates with high-level gentamicin resistance or high-level streptomycin resistance evaluated in our study.