Transposon-mediated amikacin resistance in Klebsiella pneumoniae

Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 1988 Sep;32(9):1416-20. doi: 10.1128/AAC.32.9.1416.

Abstract

A multiresistant Klebsiella pneumoniae strain isolated from neonates in Mendoza, Argentina, harbored a 48-kilobase-pair (kbp) plasmid, pMET1, with genetic determinants for resistance to amikacin and also ampicillin, kanamycin, streptomycin, and tobramycin. This plasmid was compared with pJHCMW1, a previously isolated 11-kbp plasmid carrying transposon Tn1331, which encodes resistance to amikacin, as well as ampicillin, kanamycin, streptomycin, and tobramycin, and which was originally present in a K. pneumoniae strain that caused an outbreak in a hospital in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The comparison demonstrated that the replication regions of the two plasmids are unrelated. However, in pMET1 an 11-kbp transposition element, Tn1331.2, was identified; it was closely related to Tn1331, with the difference that a 3-kbp BamHI DNA fragment carrying the aminoglycoside resistance genes was duplicated in tandem.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amikacin / pharmacology*
  • Blotting, Southern
  • Cloning, Molecular
  • DNA Transposable Elements / drug effects*
  • Drug Resistance, Microbial
  • Klebsiella pneumoniae / drug effects*
  • Microbial Sensitivity Tests
  • Plasmids
  • Restriction Mapping

Substances

  • DNA Transposable Elements
  • Amikacin