Phenotypic Characterization and Heterogeneity among Modern Clinical Isolates of Acinetobacter baumannii
Adam Valček, Chantal Philippe, Clémence Whiteway, Etienne Robino, Kristina Nešporová, Mona Bové, Tom Coenye, Tim De Pooter, Wouter De Coster, Mojca Stražišar, Charles Van der Henst
Abstract
Acinetobacter baumannii is a bacterium prioritized by the CDC and WHO because of its increasing antibiotic resistance, leading to treatment failures. The hallmark of this pathogen is the high heterogeneity observed among isolates, due to a very dynamic genome. In this context, we tested if a subset of broadly used isolates, considered "reference" strains, was reflecting the genetic and phenotypic diversity found among currently circulating clinical isolates. We observed that the so-called reference strains do not cover the whole diversity of the modern clinical isolates. While formerly established strains successfully generated a strong base of knowledge in the A. baumannii field and beyond, our study shows that a rational choice of strain, related to a specific biological question, should be taken into consideration. Any data obtained with historically established strains should also be compared to modern and clinically relevant isolates, especially concerning drug screening, resistance, and virulence contexts.