Fasciana T, Gentile B, Aquilina M, et al. - Researchers sought to describe the current snapshot of the distribution of K. pneumoniae in Sicily, Italy via portraying the virulome and resistome of carbapenem-resistant K. pneumoniae (CR-Kp) clones; assessing the extent to which virulence determinants were carried by CR-Kp and CS-Kp (carbapenem susceptible K. pneumoniae); studying the phylogenetic correlations among samples by Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) in silico and the analysis of core single nucleotide polymorphisms. From March 2014 to March 2016, they collected 50 K. pneumoniae strains, 25 CR-Kp and 25 CS-Kp, at the Laboratory of Bacteriology of the Paolo Giaccone Polyclinic University hospital of Palermo, Italy. Performing MLST in silico analysis of CR-Kp, they identified that 52% of isolates belonged to CC258, followed by ST395 (12%), ST307 (12%), ST392 (8%), ST348 (8%), ST405 (4%) and ST101 (4%). The CS-Kp group comprised ST405 (20%), followed by ST392 and ST15 (12%), ST395, ST307 and ST1727 (8%). As per in silico β-lactamase analysis of the CR-Kp group, the most detected gene was blaSHV (100%), followed by blaTEM (92%), blaKPC (88%), blaOXA (88%) and blaCTX-M (32%). Overall, findings support that in the Palermo area (Sicily, Italy), the epidemiological frame is shifting and new multi drug resistant clones are emerging. However, the comparison of the virulence degree of CS-Kp and CR-Kp isolates revealed that the latter are acquiring highly-virulent determinants and the co-presence of more resistance genes. As co-existence of antibiotic resistance and virulence factors may result in life-threatening untreatable and invasive K. pneumoniae infections, they emphasize considering this issue in future genomic surveillance studies.