Molecular structure and translocation of a multiple antibiotic resistance region of a Psychrobacter psychrophilus permafrost strain.

A Psychrobacter psychrophilus strain resistant to tetracycline and streptomycin was isolated from a 15,000-35,000-year-old permafrost subsoil sediment sampled from the coast of the Eastern-Siberian Sea. The genes conferring antibiotic resistance were localized on an c. 30-kb pKLH80 plasmid. It was shown that the antibiotic resistance region of this plasmid has a mosaic structure and contains closely linked streptomycin resistance (strA-strB) and tetracycline resistance [tetR-tet(H)] genes, followed by a novel IS element (ISPpy1) belonging to the IS3 family. Both the strA-strB and tetR-tet(H) genes of pKLH80 were highly similar to those found in modern clinical bacterial isolates. It was shown that the ISPpy1 element of pKLH80 can direct translocation of the adjacent antibiotic resistance genes to different target plasmids, either by one-ended transposition or by formation of a composite transposon resulting from the insertion of the ISPpy1 second copy at the other side of the antibiotic resistance region. Thus, our data demonstrate that clinically important antibiotic resistance genes originated long before the introduction of antibiotics into clinical practice and confirm an important role of horizontal gene transfer in the distribution of these genes in natural bacterial populations.