Incidence and transfer of R-plasmids at a hospital in Saudi Arabia |
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Authors: | M L Skotnicki J D Hall R N Al-Harithy R Smith A Skotnicki |
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Institution: | Department of Biological and Medical Research, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. |
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Abstract: | One hundred and fifty Gram-negative bacteria isolated from patient specimens at King Faisal Specialist Hospital were examined for their ability to transfer antibiotic resistance plasmids to a sensitive Escherichia coli recipient in conjugation and transformation experiments. Agarose gel electrophoresis was used to enumerate and size the R-plasmids found, and Southern DNA hybridization was used to assess similarities between antibiotic resistance plasmids from different bacteria and sources. Of the bacterial isolates tested 65% contained plasmids, 70% of these transferred antibiotic resistance to E. coli, and 40% transferred multiple, linked resistances on R-plasmids. DNA hybridization of these R-plasmids demonstrated widespread similarities between plasmids from different bacterial genera and from different hospital locations. In particular, a gene encoding ampicillin resistance appeared especially widespread, indicating that a transposon may be mediating transmission of this resistance. |
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