Mycobacterium abscessus (MAB) is intrinsically resistant to many antibiotics, but the evolution of acquired drug resistance is poorly understood. We analyzed published genomes of 5,617 clinical MAB isolates from 20 countries and searched for signals of ongoing evolution in 35 drug-resistance-associated genes. Of these, we found 14 genes were subject to positive selection and identified novel mutational sites under selection. Among these, the erm(41) V80I mutation arose exclusively in strains with erm(41) 28T and affected 50.5% (1750/3465) of subsp. abscessus isolates. The study provided evidence that MAB is evolving mutations in drug-resistance-associated genes, and further research is needed to understand the functional consequences of these mutations.

中文翻译：

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全球脓肿分枝杆菌分离株的基因组分析揭示了耐药性相关基因的持续进化


脓肿分枝杆菌 （MAB） 对许多抗生素具有内在耐药性，但对获得性耐药性的演变知之甚少。我们分析了来自 20 个国家的 5,617 个临床 MAB 分离株的已发表基因组，并在 35 个耐药相关基因中寻找持续进化的信号。其中，我们发现 14 个基因受到正向选择的影响，并在选择下确定了新的突变位点。其中，erm（41） V80I 突变仅出现在 erm（41） 28T 菌株中，影响 50.5% （1750/3465） 的脓肿亚种分离株。该研究提供了证据表明 MAB 正在进化耐药性相关基因的突变，需要进一步研究来了解这些突变的功能后果。