One Percent of Escherichia coli O157 H7 Peptides May Contain Putative Beta Lactamase Activity.

Citation: Gunalan, K, Wong, CQL, Neo, MPY, Ling, MHT. 2020. One Percent of Escherichia coli O157:H7 Peptides May Contain Putative Beta-Lactamase Activity. EC Microbiology 16(8): 73-79.

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Beta-lactamases are enzymes conferring resistance to beta-lactam antibiotics, which has become a global challenge. Studies had suggested that beta-lactamases are primitive enzymes that existed before the antibiotic era, leading to the question on potential sources and emergence of beta-lactamases. This study examines the possibility of putative beta-lactamases in Escherichia coli O157:H7 by sequence comparison to known extended-spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBLs) from E. coli. Our results suggest that 57 peptides out of 5021 (1.14%) E. coli O157:H7 peptides have 64.7% probability of beta-lactamase activity. Phylogenetic analysis clustered the top 10 (by sequence similarity score) of these 58 peptides within known ESBLs. This suggests that these peptides may contain putative beta-lactamases activity and potentially be a source of putative beta-lactamase.