Title Plasmid Profiling and Curing of Lactobacillus Strains Isolated from the Gastrointestinal Tract of Chicken
Author Sieo Chin Chin1,3,*, Norhani Abdullah2,3, Tan Wen Siang1,3, and Ho Yin Wan3
Address 1Department of Microbiology Faculty of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia, 2Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia 3Institute of Bioscience, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia,
Bibliography Journal of Microbiology, 43(3),251-256, 2005,
DOI
Key Words antibiotic resistance, curing agents, Lactobacillus, plasmid profile, plasmid curing
Abstract In this study, we assessed the susceptibility of 12 Lactobacillus strains, all of which had been isolated from the gastrointestinal tracts of chicken, to three antibiotics (chloramphenicol, erythromycin and tetracycline) used commonly as selective markers in transformation studies of lactic acid bacteria. Among these strains, 17%, 58%, and 25% were found to exhibit a high degree of resistance to 200 mg/ml of tetracycline, erythromycin, and chloramphenicol, respectively. Seven of the 12 Lactobacillus strains exhibiting resistance to at least 50 mg/ml of chloramphenicol or erythromycin, and five strains exhibiting resistance to at least 50 mg/ml of tetracycline, were subsequently subjected to plasmid curing with chemical curing agents, such as novobiocin, acriflavin, SDS, and ethidium bromide. In no cases did the antibiotic resistance of these strains prove to be curable, with the exception of the erythromycin resistance exhibited by five Lactobacillus strains (L. acidophilus I16 and I26, L. fermentum I24 and C17, and L. brevis C10). Analysis of the plasmid profiles of these five cured derivatives revealed that all of the derivatives, except for L. acidophilus I16, possessed profiles similar to those of wild-type strains. The curing of L. acidophilus I16 was accompanied by the loss of 4.4 kb, 6.1 kb, and 11.5 kb plasmids.
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