ANTIBIOTIC-RESISTANCE AND PROTEASE PRODUCTION BY PHOTORHABDUS-LUMINESCENS AND XENORHABDUS-POINARII BACTERIA SYMBIOTIC WITH ENTOMOPATHOGENICNEMATODES - VARIATION AMONG SPECIES AND STRAINS
M. Abuhatab et al., ANTIBIOTIC-RESISTANCE AND PROTEASE PRODUCTION BY PHOTORHABDUS-LUMINESCENS AND XENORHABDUS-POINARII BACTERIA SYMBIOTIC WITH ENTOMOPATHOGENICNEMATODES - VARIATION AMONG SPECIES AND STRAINS, Soil biology & biochemistry, 30(14), 1998, pp. 1955-1961
Bacteria in the genera Photorhabdus and Xenorhabdus are highly pathoge
nic to insects and are symbiotically associated with nematodes in the
genera Heterorhabditis and Steinernema, respectively. We compared extr
acellular protease production and resistance to antibiotics (chloramph
enicol, erythromycin, neomycin and tetracycline) for 32 isolates of P.
luminescens and 11 isolates of X. poinarii taken from nematodes isola
ted from soil in southern New Jersey. P. luminescens produced greater
amounts of protease, and was more resistant to erythromycin and less r
esistant to neomycin than X. poinarii. No interspecific differences in
resistance to chloramphenicol or tetracycline were detected. Variabil
ity within species was not related to the site, habitat or soil core f
rom which the isolates were obtained, and was not associated with vari
ation in the color of the host cadaver for P. luminescens. Resistance
to erythromycin was positively correlated with resistance to both neom
ycin and tetracycline for P. luminescens, but was negatively correlate
d with resistance to neomycin for X. poinarii. Antibiotic resistance p
rofiles and extracellular protease production might be useful characte
ristics for distinguishing among species and strains of these bacteria
, probably have ecological significance with respect to intra- and int
erspecific competition within host cadavers, and could have implicatio
ns for the utility of these organisms for biological control. (C) 1998
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