Comparative genomic analysis of the core virulence factor in Klebsiella pneumoniae ST11, based on a global genomic database

作者：Ruyu Yan, Han Shen, Kai Wen Zhou, Wei Chen, Chang Liu, Zhifeng Zhang, Wanqing Zhou, Junhao Chen, Xiaoli Cao, Yinghui Ling · 发表于：Microbial Pathogenesis · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1016/j.micpath.2025.107575 · 被引用次数：9 · 研究领域：Antibiotic Resistance in Bacteria、Escherichia coli research studies、Pneumonia and Respiratory Infections

Background The global dissemination of carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae (CRKP) ST11 poses a major public health challenge due to its high transmissibility, multidrug resistance , and virulence. However, detailed insights into the core virulence factors (VFs) contributing to its pathogenicity and adaptability remain limited. Objective To characterize the virulence profiles of global K. pneumoniae ST11 strains and explore associations between major VFs, serotypes and carbapenemase encoding genes. Materials and methods Sixty-two K. pneumoniae strains were collected from 15 hospitals in Jiangsu, and their genomes were sequenced. Additional K. pneumoniae genome sequences were retrieved from GenBank. Multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) was used to identify sequence types (STs). Comparative analyses between ST11 and non-ST11 strains were performed to identify key VFs. Phylogenetic trees were constructed to explore genetic relationships , and the distribution of serotypes and carbapenemase genes was analyzed. Results Among the 62 clinical isolates, ST11 was the most prevalent (n = 46). A broader review of 11,429 global strains confirmed ST11 (n = 1571) as a dominant clone, followed by ST258 (n = 1240), ST15 (n = 545), ST512 (n = 451). Virulence analysis revealed that the yersiniabactin (Ybt) gene cluster-including ybtT , ybtX , fyuA , ybtP , ybtU , ybtS , ybtA , ybtQ , ybtE , irp1 and irp2 —was highly enriched in ST11 strains, particularly those belonging to serotypes K64 an...