Associations of the major international high-risk resistant clones and virulent clones with specific ompK36 allele groups in Klebsiella pneumoniae in Taiwan

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate the association between ompK36 variants and international high-risk clones in Klebsiella pneumoniae. Fifty-nine sequence types (STs) divided into four ompK36 allele groups (groups A to D) were identified among 185 K. pneumoniae isolates. The major high-risk clones (29 ST11, 13 ST15, 7 ST37 and 1 ST147 isolates) were assigned to group A, while 6 STs (15 ST23, 2 ST65, 3 ST86, 1 ST163, 1 ST373 and 2 ST375 isolates) associated with pyogenic liver abscess were assigned to group C. The genotyping assay developed in this study may be useful for screening of epidemic STs.