Two high-frequency-transduction phage isolates from lysogenic strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa transducing antibiotic resistance.

Two high frequency transduction (HFT) phage isolates, obtained from seriously ill patients, transducing individual determinants of antibiotic resistance with a frequency of 10(-5) (phage isolate AP-103) and 10(-6) (phage isolate AP-343), are described. The frequency of transduction depended on the transduced determinant(s) of resistance used for the detection of transductants and on the individual recipient antibiotic-susceptible strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PAO and/or ML series). A multiple-antibiotic resistance was transduced by the phage isolate AP-343 to all tested recipient strains. The appearance of such phages in clinical conditions with an unusually high frequency of transduction might contribute to the dissemination of antibiotic resistance genes among nosocomial strains of P. aeruginosa. The existence of HFT phages might reflect an increased efficiency of transduction of antibiotic resistance among P. aeruginosa strains, and thus an increased risk of spread of antibiotic resistance even to recently introduced anti-pseudomonadal antibiotics among pseudomonads with unfavourable and unwanted epidemiological consequences in hospital conditions.