VIM-12, a novel plasmid-mediated metallo-beta-lactamase from Klebsiella pneumoniae that resembles a VIM-1/VIM-2 hybrid.

A transferable plasmid from Klebsiella pneumoniae carried a class 1 integron containing bla(VIM-12), a novel bla(VIM)-type gene, flanked by two copies of aacA7. bla(VIM-12) was clustered between bla(VIM-1) and bla(VIM-2) and differed from bla(VIM-1) by 18 nucleotides that were all located at the 3' end and matched the corresponding nucleotides in bla(VIM-2). The bla(VIM-12)-associated 59-base element was identical to that described in bla(VIM-2) alleles.