Genetics of high level penicillin resistance in clinical isolates of Streptococcus pneumoniae |
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Authors: | Victoria A Barcus Kiran Ghanekar Maggie Yeo Tracey J Coffey Christopher G Dowson |
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Affiliation: | Molecular Microbiology Group, School of Biological Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QG, UK |
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Abstract: | Abstract Mosaic penicillin-binding proteins (PBP) 1A, 2X and 2B genes were cloned from four clinical isolates of Streptococcus pneumoniae with levels of susceptibility to penicillin ranging from 1.5 to 16 μg benzylpenicillin ml−1. In each instance it was possible to transform either the penicillin-sensitive laboratory strain R6 or a sensitive clinical isolate 110K/70 to the full level of penicillin resistance with these three penicillin-binding proteins alone. Until now it has not been possible to clearly determine whether alterations to PBP1A, 2X and 2B alone were sufficient to attain high level penicillin resistance. |
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Keywords: | Penicillin resistance Streptococcus pneumoniae, Penicillin-binding proteins |
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