Multiple drug-resistant enterococci have become a significant cause of nosocomial infection (9, 11, 12). In particular, there are limited options for the treatment of enterococcal infection caused by high-level glycopeptide-resistant enterococci (9, 11). Infection or colonization by vancomycin-resistant enterococci was first reported in France (10) and the U.K. (14). Since then, vancomycin-resi...

Vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) have been reported to be present in humans, chickens, and pigs in Malaysia. In the present study, representative samples of VRE isolated from these populations were examined for similarities and differences by using the multilocus sequence typing (MLST) method. Housekeeping genes of Enterococcus faecium (n = 14) and Enterococcus faecalis (n = 11) isolates ...

The presence, distribution and expression of cassette chromosome recombinase (ccr) genes, which are homologous to the staphylococcal ccrAB genes and are designated ccrAB(Ent) genes, were examined in enterococcal isolates (n=421) representing 13 different species. A total of 118 (28 %) isolates were positive for ccrAB(Ent) genes by PCR, and a number of these were confirmed by Southern hybridizat...

BACKGROUND The lipopeptide antibiotic, daptomycin (DAP) interacts with the bacterial cell membrane (CM). Development of DAP resistance during therapy in a clinical strain of Enterococcus faecalis was associated with mutations in genes encoding enzymes involved in cell envelope homeostasis and phospholipid metabolism. Here we characterized changes in CM phospholipid profiles associated with deve...

BACKGROUND Enterococci are indigenous flora of the gastro-intestinal tracts of animals and humans. Recently, interest in two major species, E. faecium and E. faecalis, has heightened because of their ability to cause serious infections and their intrinsic resistance to antimicrobials. This study was aimed at determining the prevalence of E. faecium and E. faecalis in human faecal samples and ev...

The ability of antibiotic resistant E. faecalis and E. faecium isolated from food to form biofilm at different temperatures in the absence or presence of 0.75% glucose was evaluated. A synergistic effect on biofilm at 10 °C, 28 °C, 37 °C and 45 °C and glucose was observed for E. faecalis and E. faecium.

Specific lineages of the commensal bacterium Enterococcus faecium belonging to CC17, especially ST412, have been isolated from patients in several hospitals worldwide and harbor antibiotic resistance genes and virulence factors. Here, we report a high-quality draft genome sequence and highlight features of E. faecium VRE16, a representative of this ST.

In several clonally unrelated VanB-type vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium strains, we demonstrated a common physical relationship between pbp5 and Tn5382 as well as common mutations within pbp5. The majority of these strains transferred vancomycin and ampicillin resistance to E. faecium in vitro, suggesting the dissemination of similar transferable pbp5-vanB-containing mobile elements t...