Transfer of plasmid-borne resistance from a multiply-resistant Staphylococcus aureus isolate, WBG1022.

Staphylococcus aureus isolate, WBG1022, was resistant to penicillin, kanamycin, neomycin, streptomycin, chloramphenicol, trimethoprim, cadmium, and ethidium bromide and harbored plasmids of 34.5, 24.5, 4.4, 3.2, and 2.6 kilobases. The plasmids were transferred in mixed-culture transfer and conjugation experiments. No resistance phenotype was associated with the 2.6-kb plasmid. The 3.2-kb and 4.4-kb plasmids encoded chloramphenicol and streptomycin resistance respectively. The 24.5-kb plasmid, pWBG626, encoded joint resistance to penicillin, kanamycin, neomycin, and ethidium bromide. Resistance to trimethoprim and cadmium were chromosomal. The 34.5-kb plasmid, pWBG661, had no resistance phenotype but was found to be conjugative. It also mobilized the 4.4-kb and 24.5-kb plasmids in WBG1022. Restriction endonuclease analysis of pWBG661 with EcoRI, ClaI, PvuII, and BglII restriction enzymes demonstrated that pWBG661 was identical to two previously isolated S. aureus conjugative plasmids, pWBG620 and pWBG637, that also lack resistance phenotypes.