pRKZ3 is a non-conjugative IncQ plasmid, while pKANJ7 is a conjugative IncX plasmid.The optimal mating time of pKANJ7 varied under different conditions.Both of the two transferable ARPs had little impact on the growth of their hosts.A relatively high level of fitness cost was observed for pKANJ7.The fitness cost of ARPs depended on their hosts. Plasmid-mediated antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) have recently become a more prominent concern in the global environment. However, the prevalence of aminoglycoside resistance plasmids in the livestock industry is under reported. In this study, two transferable aminoglycoside resistance plasmids, pRKZ3 and pKANJ7, isolated from pig and chicken manure, were characterized. Results showed that pRKZ3 (8236 bp) is a non-conjugative IncQ plasmid and contains genes encoding for plasmid replication and stabilization (repA, repB and repC), mobilization (mob), and antibiotic resistance (arr-3 and aacA). pKANJ7 (30142 bp) is a conjugative IncX plasmid which codes for a type IV secretion system (T4SS). Conjugative transfer experiments showed that the optimal mating time of pKANJ7 was 8 h under the starvation condition, but the number of tranconjugants increased with time under the nutrient condition. Statistical analysis indicated that the two plasmids had little impact on the growth of their hosts, but a relatively high level of fitness cost due to pKANJ7 was observed. We also found that the fitness cost of plasmids depended on their hosts. Compared with pKANJ7, the relative fitness cost index of pRKZ3 varied within a narrow range during the 10 days of competition. The low level of fitness cost of pRKZ3 might contribute to the persistence of the plasmid in the environment. Our study provides new information for understanding the characterizations of antibiotic resistance plasmids (ARPs) in manure sources and helps to clarify the transfer and persistence of ARPs in the environment following the application of manure. 相似文献
Transport of engineered antibiotic resistance plasmids in porous media has been reported to potentially cause significant spreading of antibiotic resistance in the environment. In this work, transport of an indigenous resistance plasmid pK5 in porous media was investigated through packed column experiments. At identical ionic strengths in CaCl2 solutions, the breakthroughs of pK5 from soil columns were very close to those from quartz sand columns, indicating that transport of pK5 in quartz sand and soil was similar. A similarity in transport behavior was also found between pK5 and an engineered plasmid pBR322 that has approximately the same number of base pairs as pK5. The influence of surfactants, a major group of constituents in soil solutions, was examined using an engineered plasmid pcDNA3.1(+)/myc-His A. The impact of an anionic surfactant, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), was negligible at concentrations up to 200 mg·L–1. Cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB), a cationic surfactant, was found to significantly enhance plasmid adsorption at high concentrations. However, at environmentally relevant concentrations (<1 mg·L–1), the effect of this surfactant was also minimal. The negligible impact of surfactants and the similarity between the transport of engineered and indigenous plasmids indicate that under environmentally relevant conditions, indigenous plasmids in soil also have the potential to transport over long distances and lead to the spreading of antibiotic resistance.
This research work was conducted in Uppanar estuary to ascertain the role of plasmids in the antibiotic resistance of bacteria. Water and sediment samples were collected for a period of three months. When tested against 20 antibiotics 22 MAR strains were isolated from the samples, which were found resistant to 5-13 antibiotics. They belong to 7 genera and 10 species. Gram-negative bacteria namely Neisseria mucosa, N. sicca, Branhamella catarrhalis, Klebsiella ozaenae, Citrobacterintermedius, Pseudomonas fluorescens and Enterobacter aerogenes were isolated. Gram-positive bacteria were of Bacillus subtilis, B. megaterium and Micrococcus luteus. When plasmid curing was done using acredine orange, the resistance against penicillin-G, ampicillin, tetracycline, amoxycillin, kanamycin, and chloramphenicol were totally lost in all strains, which confirmed the role of plasmid in these strains against antibiotics. Ten strains belong to different species were selected for the plasmid isolation and electrophoresis was done. Presence of plasmids in all strains was confirmed and the molecular weight was in the range of 2850 to 3170 bp. The study revealed that MAR strains are common in Uppanar estuary and they are plasmid mediated. This environment is seemed to be deteriorating at an alarming rate. 相似文献
