Sa. Rasool et al., SEARCH FOR DRUG AND METAL RESISTANCE PLASMIDS FROM INDIGENOUS CLINICAL PSEUDOMONADS, Pakistan journal of botany, 27(2), 1995, pp. 441-446
On the bases of morphology, cultural and biochemical characteristics,
50 indigenous clinical pseudomonads were identified as Pseudomonas aer
uginosa. Resistance patterns of antibiotics upto 500 mu g mL(-1) and i
norganic metallic ions upto 3 mg mL(-1) were determined by medium inco
rporation method. Five of the isolates lost their resistance to erythr
omycin after curing for plasmid elimination with 5 mg mL(-1) of acridi
ne orange, thereby indicating the extrachromosomal location of the res
istance determinants. Agarose gel electrophoresis using 'Mini prep' me
thod for plasmid isolation revealed that six isolates harbour plasmids
of different molecular weights (5-28 kb) with Hind III digest of lamb
da DNA as ladder. some of the pseudomonad isolates were able to transf
er their resistance to Escherichia coil BU 40 by in vivo gene transfer
plasmid conjugation.