چکیده (انگلیسی):

This study highlights the prevalence of aminoglycoside-modifying enzyme genes and vir-ulence determinants among clinical enterococci with high-level aminoglycoside resistancein Inner Mongolia, China. Screening for high-level aminoglycoside resistance against 117enterococcal clinical isolates was performed using the agar-screening method. Out of the117 enterococcal isolates, 46 were selected for further detection and determination of thedistribution of aminoglycoside-modifying enzyme-encoding genes and virulence determi-nants using polymerase chain reaction -based methods. Enterococcus faecium and Enterococcusfaecalis were identified as the species of greatest clinical importance. The aac(6)-Ie-aph(2)-Iaand ant(6)-Ia genes were found to be the most common aminoglycoside-modifying enzymegenes among high-level gentamicin resistance and high-level streptomycin resistance iso-lates, respectively. Moreover, gelE was the most common virulence gene among high-levelaminoglycoside resistance isolates. Compared to Enterococcus faecium, Enterococcus faecalisharbored multiple virulence determinants. The results further indicated no correlationbetween aminoglycoside-modifying enzyme gene profiles and the distribution of virulencegenes among the enterococcal isolates with high-level gentamicin resistance or high-levelstreptomycin resistance evaluated in our study.