Inferring number of elements in an assembly based on multiplicity

[AceM1188]

Hi there,

I am new to genome assembly but have performed whole genome bacterial assembly of some clinical isolates that I have which are very resistant to multiple antibiotics. Can numbers of extrachromosomal elements (e.g., plasmids) be inferred/determined from the multiplicity metric? For example, if I have the following contig data:

#seq_name	length	cov.	circ.	repeat	mult.	alt_group	graph_path
contig_2	5292913	189	Y	N	1	*	2
contig_18	52907	212	N	N	7	*	18,-10,-6,9,10,11,-8,-4,5
contig_1	20446	746	Y	Y	6	*	1
contig_19	19644	831	N	Y	12	*	19
...

-Contig_2 is the bacterial chromosome -Contig_18 is some type of plasmid (containing several resistance genes based on prokka data) that could not be circularized based on the sequencing data -Contig_1 is a plasmid with resistance genes that was able to be circularized -Contig_19 is some other extrachromosomal element

Specifically, would it be reasonable to conclude that there are multiple copies of contigs_18, _1, and _19 relative to one bacterial genome (e.g., chromosome)? Or is this based on too many unvalidated assumptions? I ask because it would be reasonable to presume that multiple copies of a resistance element - particularly of a non-repeating contig that was able to be circularized (e.g., contig_1) - could confer such a phenotype.

Thanks again in advance!