Inactivation and sedimentation of mercury from organomercurials by Klebsiella pneumoniae |
| |
Authors: | Megumi Kono Koji O'hara Yoshihiro Arai Hideyuki Fukuda Misaki Asakawa Hideomi Nakahara |
| |
Institution: | Department of Microbiology, Tokyo College of Pharmacy, Hachioji, Tokyo 192-03, Japan;Department of Environmental Health, Medical University of Yamanashi, Yamanashi 400-38, Japan |
| |
Abstract: | Abstract A susceptibility of 63 clinical isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae to inorganic and organic mercuric compounds was determined. 18 of them were found to be resistant to fluorescein mercuric acetate (FMA) and merbromin (MB). Moreover, all the resistant strains inactivate the antibacterial effect of FMA. The changes in the amount of organic mercury at the time of inactivation of the drug and the structures of the end products were examined in detail with the plasmid-bearing strain JK9 and its transconjugants of Escherichia coli . The results showed that FMA was inactivated by an intracellular enzyme produced inducively and was degraded to fluorescein (sodium salt, uranine), which led to the sedimentation of metallic mercury. The discovery of the genes conferring inducible organic mercury-inactivating enzymes determined by plasmids was the next step and their application in the recovery of metallic mercury from organomercurials is now imminent. |
| |
Keywords: | Fluorescein mercuric acetate (FMA) merbromin inactivation of FMA |
本文献已被 ScienceDirect 等数据库收录! |
|