Development and Transduction of Rsistance to Novobiocin and Nikkol-SNP 7.5A (an Anionic Surfactant) in Staphylococcus aureus

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The susceptibility to Novobiocin (NB) and Nikkol-SNP 75A (NS), an anionic surfactant, was studied in 458 strains of coagulase-positive Staphylococcus aureus isolated from clinical sources. Twenty three (4.9%) of these strains were resistant to NB with minimum inhibition concentration (MIC) of 1.6 μg per ml or more, 97 (21.2%) resistant to NS with MIC of 6.25 mg per ml or more, and 17 (3.7%) resistant to both drugs. Cross-resistance to NB and NS was found in 74 per cent of 23 NB-resistant strains and 17.5 per cent of 97 NS-resistant strains. Nearly one half of NS-resistant strains belonged to phase group I, while the remainder were nontypable. The majority of the NB-resistant strains were not phage typable. In S. aureus strain PS 53 used for propagating phage 53, resistance to 25 mg per ml of NS was attained rapidly by single step without accompanying that to NB, whereas resistance to 25 μg per ml of NB developed gradually by three successive steps and was accompanied by a rapid development of resistance to NS first by two steps. The transduction experiments in strain PS 53 showed that resistance to NB and NS was jointly transduced and the genetic loci responsible for resistance to both drugs are closely linked.