A plasmid-encoded class 1 integron carrying sat, a putative phosphoserine phosphatase gene and aadA2 from enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli O159 isolated in Japan.

A class 1 integron was detected in a single multidrug-resistant strain of enterotoxigenice Escherichia coli (ETEC) O159 after examination of 23 clinical E. coli isolates. This isolate was resistant to streptomycin, kanamycin, gentamicin, chloramphenicol and ampicillin. Sequencing of the class 1 integron identified three-gene cassettes. The first is the streptothricin acetyltransferase gene, sat, which confers resistance to streptothricin. The second is an ORF whose product is a putative phosphoserine phosphatase (PSP), and the last is an aminoglycoside adenyltransferase gene, aadA2, which confers resistance to streptomycin and spectinomycin. The putative PSP gene product was found to be 39%, 38%, 28%, and 27% identical to PSP gene products of Vibrio vulnificus CMCP6, V. vulnificus YJ016, Pseudomonas syringae, and P. aeruginosa, respectively. Southern-blot hybridization showed that this integron is located on a 90 kb plasmid. This is the first report identifying a putative PSP gene in an integron.