Drug Resistance of Staphylococci II. Joint Elimination and Joint Transduction of the Determinants of Penicillinase Production and Resistance to Macrolide Antibiotics

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Mitsuhashi, Susumu (Gunma University, Maebashi, Japan), Hajime Hashimoto, Megumi Kono, and Masato Morimura . Drug resistance of staphylococci. II. Joint elimination and joint transduction of the determinants of penicillinase production and resistance to macrolide antibiotics. J. Bacteriol. 89: 988–992. 1965.—Strains of Staphylococcus aureus , which show high resistance to macrolide antibiotics (erythromycin, oleandomycin, leucomycin, and spiramycin) and the capacity to produce penicillinase, have been isolated from clinical sources. The determinants of penicillinase production (PCase + ) and resistance to macrolide antibiotics (MAC r ) of these strains were irreversibly eliminated by treatment with acridine or with ultraviolet light. Among the 18 strains tested, PCase + and MAC r were eliminated from all strains except one, which lost only PCase + but not MAC r . The characters PCase + and MAC r were jointly transduced with the aid of phage lysates, obtained from the resistant donors by ultraviolet irradiation, into staphylococcal strains sensitive to PC and MAC. Segregation of PCase + and MAC r was rarely observed after transduction. From these results, it is suggested that the determinants of both PCase + and MAC r of staphylococci are located close together on a single genetic element, i.e., a plasmid (or episome), which exists extrachromosomally.

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