Acta Veterinaria et Zootechnica Sinica ›› 2021, Vol. 52 ›› Issue (9): 2369-2383.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2021.09.001

• REVIEW • Previous Articles     Next Articles

The Research Progress of Acquired 16S rRNA Methyltransferases

TANG Minjia, HE Zhuolin, PU Wanxia*   

  1. Key Laboratory of New Animal Drug Project, Gansu Province/Key Laboratory of Veterinary Pharmaceutical Development, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs/Lanzhou Institute of Husbandry and Pharmaceutical Sciences of Chinese Academy of Agriculture Sciences, Lanzhou 730050, China
  • Received:2021-01-18 Online:2021-09-23 Published:2021-09-26

Abstract: Exogenously acquired 16S rRNA methyltransferases (16S-RMTases) genes, which mediate high-level resistance to a variety of aminoglycosides, have been widely distributed in gram-negative bacteria. 16S-RMTases can add the methyl of S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAM) to the specific nucleotides at the A-site of 16S rRNA, and thus interferes with aminoglycosides binding to the target site. Genes encoding 16S-RMTases are usually mediated by mobile genetic elements such as transposons and further embedded into transferable plasmids or chromosomes, which will contribute to the rapid worldwide dissemination of the resistance genes. More worryingly, genes encoding 16S-RMTases are often associated with other antimicrobial resistance genes such as blaNDM-1, blaCTX-M, and qnrB1, which mediate multidrug-resistance against β-lactams and fluoroquinolones. Multidrug-resistant bacteria with 16S-RMTases recently have become a more serious health threat. Similar exponents have been reported across continents, at least in 30 countries or regions. The worldwide spread of 16S-RMTases is becoming a serious global public health concern.

Key words: aminoglycosides, 16S rRNA methyltransferase, multidrug-resistance

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