Localization of a Determinant Mediating Partial Macrolide Resistance in Staphylococcus aureus

Abstract

Four out of more than 8, 200 Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated in Japan between 1961 and 1980 were constitutively resistant to a variety of macrolide antibiotics except tylosin and rokitamycin, but susceptible to lincosamide and streptogramin type B antibiotics (PM). The data obtained by agarose gel electrophoresis, CsCl-ethidium bromide density gradient analysis, diagnosis with ATP-dependent deoxyribonuclease, and a test transducing into a rec^- mutant with phage 80L2 propagated on PM-resistant S. aureus all suggested that the determinant for the PM-resistance is located in chromosome.