title: Intra- and inter-species mobilisation of non-conjugative plasmids in staphylococci.
abstract: The ability of Staphylococcus aureus conjugative plasmids to mobilise non-conjugative resistance plasmids from clinical isolates of S. aureus and S. epidermidis was studied. Plasmids which could not be transferred by transduction or mixed-culture transfer were transferred from phage-typable and non-typable S. aureus and from S. epidermidis. Plasmids encoding single resistance determinants were transferred by mobilisation whereas multiple-resistance plasmids were transferred as co-integrates between the conjugative and non-conjugative plasmids. This study demonstrates that mobilisation is a useful tool for the transfer and study of staphylococcal plasmids and illustrates how antibiotic resistance could be transferred between staphylococci in vivo.
authors.affiliation: School of Biomedical Sciences, Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Western Australia.
authors.forename: E E
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Udo
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Love
authors.forename: W B
authors.initials: WB
authors.lastname: Grubb
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology; D003227:Conjugation, Genetic; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000032:analysis; D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial / Q000235:genetics; D011815:R Factors; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics*; D013212:Staphylococcus epidermidis / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D004269:DNA, Bacterial