Erythromycin-resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae and oral commensal Neisseria spp. carry known rRNA methylase genes

Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 1999 Jun;43(6):1367-72. doi: 10.1128/AAC.43.6.1367.

Abstract

Two Neisseria gonorrhoeae isolates from Seattle and two isolates from Uruguay were resistant to erythromycin (MIC, 4 to 16 microg/ml) and had reduced susceptibility to azithromycin (MIC, 1 to 4 microg/ml) due to the presence of the self-mobile rRNA methylase gene(s) ermF or ermB and ermF. The two Seattle isolates and one isolate from Uruguay were multiresistant, carrying either the 25.2-MDa tetM-containing plasmid (Seattle) or a beta-lactamase plasmid (Uruguay). Sixteen commensal Neisseria isolates (10 Neisseria perflava-N. sicca, 2 N. flava, and 4 N. mucosa) for which erythromycin MICs were 4 to 16 microg/ml were shown to carry one or more known rRNA methylase genes, including ermB, ermC, and/or ermF. Many of these isolates also were multiresistant and carried the tetM gene. This is the first time that a complete transposon or a complete conjugative transposon carrying an antibiotic resistance gene has been described for the genus Neisseria.

Publication types

  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Anti-Bacterial Agents / pharmacology*
  • Base Sequence
  • Conjugation, Genetic
  • Drug Resistance, Microbial
  • Erythromycin / pharmacology*
  • Genes, Bacterial*
  • Methyltransferases / genetics*
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Neisseria / drug effects*
  • Neisseria / genetics
  • Neisseria gonorrhoeae / drug effects*
  • Neisseria gonorrhoeae / genetics

Substances

  • Anti-Bacterial Agents
  • Erythromycin
  • Methyltransferases
  • rRNA (adenosine-O-2'-)methyltransferase