• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.126-130
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• 2013

The major aim of this study was to investigate the distribution of genes that encode multidrug efflux pumps in Enterococci spp. isolates from bovine milk samples and antibiotic resistance patterns of these strains. Of the 245 isolates, 44.1% showed ampicillin resistance, 79.2% showed erythromycin resistance, 76.3% showed tetracycline resistance and 36.3% showed chloramphenicol resistance. In case of vancomycin and ciprofloxacin, all of the isolates were susceptible to these antibiotics. Of the 245 enterococcal isolates, 82.1% have MFS type eme(A) gene, 72.7% have ABC type efr(A) gene, 77.1% have ABC type efr(B) gene, and 71.8% have ABC type lsa gene. In case of Enterococcus faecalis, the original strain for these genes, 92.5% have eme(A), 87.4% have efr(A), 88.4% have efr(B), and 88.4% have lsa. Interestingly, in case of different species of Enterococci, eme(A) was also detected in four strains of E. faecium, seven strains of E. avium, four strains of E. durans and two strains of E. raffinosus. efr(A) was also detected in two strains of E. faecium and two strains of E. durans and efr(B) was also detected in four strains of E. faecium, five strains of E. avium and four strains of E. durans. This means the possibility of co-transfer of resistance genes between Enterococci species in natural environment. These results are the first report describing the presence of same multidrug efflux pumps in different species of Enterococci in Korea.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.447-452
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• 2007

In this study, we compared the phenotypic and genotypic characteristics of 138 MRSA isolates obtained from adult and pediatric patients (adult, 50; children, 88). The resistance rates against gentamicin, clindamycin, and ciprofloxacin were much higher in the adult MRSA isolates than in the pediatric MRSA isolates. The ermC gene, which is responsible for inducible clindamycin resistance, was detected in 52(59.1%) of the 88 pediatric MRSA isolates but in only 5(10.0%) of the 50 adult MRSA isolates. MRSA isolates of clonal type ST5 with an integration of SCCmec type II/II variants was the most predominant clone among the adult isolates, while clonal type ST72 with an integration of SCCmec IV/IVA was the most predominant clone among the pediatric MRSA isolates. Staphylococcal enterotoxin A and toxic shock syndrome toxin-1 were prevalent among the adult MRSA isolates but not among the pediatric MRSA isolates. The results of this study demonstrated remarkable differences between adult and pediatric MRSA isolates in terms of their antimicrobial susceptibility profiles, SCCmec type, multilocus sequence type, staphylococcal toxin genes, and erythromycin resistance genes.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.29 no.12
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• pp.1154-1157
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• 2006

The ermK gene from Bacillus lichenformis encodes an inducible rRNA methylase that confers resistance to the macrolide-lincosamide-streptogramin B antibiotics. The ermK mRNA leader sequence has a total length of 357 nucleotides and encodes a 14-amino acid leader peptide together with its ribosome binding site. The secondary structure of ermK leader mRNA and a leader peptide sequence have been reported as the elements that control expression. In this study, the contribution of specific leader peptide amino acid residues to induction of ermK was studied using the PCR-based megaprimer mutation method. ermK methylases with altered leader peptide codons were translationally fused to E. coli ${\beta}-galactosidase$ reporter gene. The deletion of the codons for Thr-2 through Ser-4 reduced inducibility by erythromycin, whereas that for Thr-2 and His-3 was not. The replacement of the individual codons for Ser-4, Met-5 and Arg-6 with termination codon led to loss of inducibility, but stop mutation of codon Phe-9 restored inducibility by erythromycin. Collectively, these findings suggest that the codons for residue 4, 5 and 6 comprise the critical region for induction. The stop mutation at Leu-7 expressed constitutively ermK gene. Thus, ribosome stalling at codon 7 appears to be important for ermK induction.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.449-457
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• 2021

The aim of the present study was to survey the frequency of inducible and constitutive phenotypes and inducible cross-resistant genes by regulating the methylation of 23S rRNA (ermA, ermB, and ermC) and macrolide efflux-related msrA gene in Staphylococcus aureus and S. epidermidis strains. A total of 172 bacterial isolates (identified based on standard tests), were examined in this study. Antibiotic susceptibility was determined by the disk diffusion method, and all isolates were evaluated with respect to inducible and constitutive phenotypes. The presence of ermA, ermB, ermC, and msrA genes was investigated by a PCR assay. The constitutive resistance phenotypes showed a higher distribution among the isolates. R phenotype was detected more among S. epidermidis isolates (46.25%). ermB, ermC, and msrA genes were detected more in methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) and methicillin-resistant S. epidermidis (MRSE) isolates that had R and HD phenotypes (>77% strains). The ermA gene had the lowest frequency among MRSA, MRSE, MSSA, and MSSE strains (<14% isolates). Distribution of inducible resistance genes in MRSA and MRSE strains, and possibly other species, leads to increased constitutive resistance to erythromycin, clindamycin, and other similar antibiotics. Therefore, it can be challenging to treat infections caused by these resistant strains.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.202-209
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• 2016

This study is aimed to determine the correlation between the toxin gene types and antibiotic resistance from MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus). Fifty-two strains of MRSA, between January 2014, and December 2014, were isolated from clinical specimens obtained from 2,664 cases in the intensive care unit of a hospital in Suncheon, Jeonnam, Korea. Genes encoding mecA, enterotoxin (SE), toxic shock syndrome toxin-1 (TSST-1), exfoliative toxin (ET), and Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) were detected by multiplex PCR-mediated amplification using specific primers. Toxin genes (seg and sei) were present in 40 strains (76.9%), followed by tst in 34 strains (65.4%). Other genes (eta, etb, sea, sed, see, seh, sej, and pvl) were not detected. Forty strains (76.9%) of MRSA had 2 or more toxin genes simultaneously; 5 coexistent toxin-genes (seb, sec, seg, sei, tst) were the most common in 28 strains (53.8%), and 6 strains (11.5%) had seg and sei genes. The coexistence of genes were 72.5~100%, showing a high correlation among genes (seb, sec, seg, sei and tst). As strains (seb, sec, tst) that had particular toxin genes (seb, sec, seg, sei, tst) in multiple showed 100% resistance to ciprofloxacin, clindamycin, erythromycin, we were able to find that seb, sec, and tst genes have a close relationship to the aforementioned antibiotics. It showed a higher resistance to ciprofloxacin, clindamycin, erythromycin, and tetracycline compared with strains that had toxin genes independent from multiple toxin genes.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.359-364
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• 1997

Resistance gene mphK was cloned from Escherichia coli 209K strain which is highly resistant to erythromycin (EM). By using the cloned plasmid pGE64, E. coli NM522 was transformed. The comparison of macrolide-phosphotransferase K [MPH(K)] activity between E. coli 209K and E. coli NM522(pGE64) showed that the total enzyme activity of MN522(pGE64) was fifty-fole higher than that of 209K. To identify characteristics of MPH(K) more precisely. MPH(K) was isolated and purified from the NM522 (pGE64). The final purification f MPH(K) through several stages of purification process was 89 fole and the overall recovery was 11%. This enzyme was monomer with the molecular weight of 34 kDa and its isoelectric point (pI) was 5.0. The optimal pH and temperature for activity were 8.0 and $40^{\circ}C$, respectively.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.204-207
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• 2006

A total of 398 strains of Staphylococcus aureus (99), coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS) (99), enterococci (100), Streptococcus pyogenes (18) and Streptococcus agalatiae (82) were in Korean tertiary hospital from Dec. 2004 to Mar, 2005. When minimal inhibitory concentrations (MIC), phenotypes and genotypes were determined, 70% of S. aureus, 65.7% of CNS, 78% of enterococci and 37.8% of S. agalatiae were resistant to erythromycin and 95.7% of erythromycin-resistant (EMR) S. aureus, 92.3% of EMR CNS and all of EMR enterococci and S. agalatiae had erm of the methylase gene or msr(A) of the efflux gene.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.257-264
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• 2011

Seventy five methicillin- resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains and 24 methicillin- susceptible S. aureus (MSSA) were isolated from clinical specimens obtained from a hospital in Suncheon, Jeonnam province, Korea, from July to December, 2009. Antibiotic resistance was determined using the disc diffusion method. Genes encoding enterotoxin (SE), toxic shock syndrome toxin-1 (TSST-1), exfoliative toxin (ET) and Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) were detected by multiplex PCR-mediated amplification using specific primers. Sixty (80%) MRSA isolates possessed either one or more toxin genes and the most common pattern that coexisted in MRSA was seb, sec, seg, sei and tst (22.7%) followed by coexistence of sec, seg, sei and tst genes (18.7%). Gene pvl encoding leukocidin was not found. Significant correlation between the production of sec, seg, sei and tst genes was found. MRSAs were resistant to erythromycin (89% of the isolates), gentamicin (70.7%), ciprofloxacin (69.3%), clindamycin (61.3%) and tetracycline (58.7%), while MSSAs were susceptible to the antibiotics with the exception of erythromycin. Toxin genes seb, sec and tst were related to the tetracycline resistance of MRSA.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.65-70
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• 2015

Antimicrobial agents or additives have commonly been used in domestic animals for the prevention and treatment of bacterial diseases. Unfortunately, this has resulted in the overgrowth of bacteria that is resistant to antimicrobial agents used by humans, and these might get disseminated to humans via the food. In this study, we investigated the prevalence of integrons, and characterized gene cassette arrays in Proteus mirabilis isolates obtained from chickens in Chungcheong province of Korea. Additionally, the correlation between gene cassette arrays and antimicrobial resistance rate was studied. A total of 26 Proteus mirabilis isolates were recovered from chickens in Chungcheong province in Korea. Antimicrobial susceptibility was determined by disk diffusion method. PCR and DNA sequencing were performed to characterize the gene cassette arrays. In addition, we employed repetitive extragenic palindromic sequence-based PCR (REP-PCR) method for clonality analysis of P. mirabilis strains. Of the 26 P. mirabilis isolates tested, 14 (53.8%) isolates carried class 1 integrons, while class 2 and class 3 integrons were not detected in our study. The class 1 integrons harbored genes encoding resistance to aminoglycosides (aacCA5, aadA2, aadA5 and aadA7), trimethoprim (dfrA17, and dfrA32), lincosamides (linF) and erythromycin (ereA). In particular, the presence of class 1 integron had a significant correlatation to a high resistance rate of aminoglycoside and trimethoprim. We confirmed that class 1 integrons are widely disseminated in P. mirabilis isolates from chickens, contributing to the resistance to diverse antimicrobial agents in Korea. To prevent further spreading of antimicrobial resistant genes among P. mirabilis isolates, constant monitoring and clinical policing will become necessary.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.133-138
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• 2013

In this study, a total of 256 samples of retail raw meats (beef, pork and chicken) and sashimi were investigated for the presence of Enterococcus faecalis and Enterococcus faecium. We isolated a total of 117 E. faecalis and E. faecium from the samples, with contamination rates ranging from 18.8% for sashimi samples to 68.8% of chicken samples. E. faecalis was the predominant species recovered from all of the retail raw meats beef (42.2%), pork (42.2%), chicken (65.6%) and sashimi (12.5%). Among 117 isolates, 61 isolates (52.1%) were resistant to tetracycline, 32 isolates (27.4%) were resistant to erythromycin, 23 isolates (19.7%) were resistant to chloramphenicol, 16 isolates (13.7%) were resistant to ripampin, 10 isolates (8.5%) were resistant to gentamycin, 9 isolates (7.7%) were resistant to ciprofloxacin and 1 isolate (0.9%) was resistant to ampicillin and penicillin G. No resistance to amoxicillin + clavulanic acid and vancomycin was observed. Although no strain was resistant to vancomycin, the vanB gene was observed in 9 of 117 of Enterococcus (7.7%) demonstrating potential risk of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE). Our results indicate that E. faecalis and E. faecium were highly prevalent in retail raw meats, but most strains were sensitive to tested antibiotics.