title: Incidence and transfer of R-plasmids at a hospital in Saudi Arabia.
abstract: One hundred and fifty Gram-negative bacteria isolated from patient specimens at King Faisal Specialist Hospital were examined for their ability to transfer antibiotic resistance plasmids to a sensitive Escherichia coli recipient in conjugation and transformation experiments. Agarose gel electrophoresis was used to enumerate and size the R-plasmids found, and Southern DNA hybridization was used to assess similarities between antibiotic resistance plasmids from different bacteria and sources. Of the bacterial isolates tested 65% contained plasmids, 70% of these transferred antibiotic resistance to E. coli, and 40% transferred multiple, linked resistances on R-plasmids. DNA hybridization of these R-plasmids demonstrated widespread similarities between plasmids from different bacterial genera and from different hospital locations. In particular, a gene encoding ampicillin resistance appeared especially widespread, indicating that a transposon may be mediating transmission of this resistance.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological and Medical Research, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Skotnicki
authors.forename: J D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Hall
authors.forename: R N
authors.initials: RN
authors.lastname: Al-Harithy
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Skotnicki
mesh_terms: D003227:Conjugation, Genetic; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000382:microbiology; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics; D006090:Gram-Negative Bacteria / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006801:Humans; D009693:Nucleic Acid Hybridization; D011815:R Factors