Transduction of Erythromycin-resistance in Staphylococcus

Abstract

Using international typing phages 80 and 81, erythromycin-resistance was transduced from naturally resistant strains of Staph. aureus to erythromycin-sensitive strains of both Staph. aureus and Staph. epidermidis.
160 strains of Staph. aureus which were highly sensitive to erythromycin were tested for the competence to serve as the recipients of erythromycin-resistance. All cases of transduction experiments revealed that about 10-17% of the tested strains were competent recipient, and all the transductants tested were resistant to 100mcg/ml of erythromycin. In 49 strains of Staph. epidermidis three or four strains were competent recipient, although the degree of resistance of the transductants were rather low compared with that of the appropriate donor.
Some of the transductants transduced by the donor which was also highly resistant to oleandomycin received also the oleandomycin-resistance, while in the other transductants oleandomycin-resistance failed to be transmitted. Furthermore, joint transduction of penicillin- or streptomycin-resistance was observed in some of the transductants, but tetracycline-resistance of the donor was not jointly transduced.
No change in the biological functions was detected in all of the transductants, and many of the transductants of Staph. aureus showed the same phage types as the original strains.