[Study on the correlation between gene ponA/penA and the penicillin-resistance of Neisseria gonorrhoeae].
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the relationship between penA/ponA and penicillin resistance of Neisseria gonorrhoeae.


METHODS
Agar dilution method was used to determine the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of the strains. Polymerase chain reaction-single stand conformation polymerphism (PCR-SSCP) and PCR- restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) were used to detect the mutations in ponA and penA genes, which encoding the penicillin binding protein-1 and -2 (PBP1 and PBP2), respectively.


RESULTS
All the 80 N. gonorrhoeae isolates had a D345 insertion detected in penA while 93.7% of N. gonorrhoeae isolates having a point mutation Leu421 --> Pro in ponA. Most of the penicillinase producing N. gonorrhoeae (PPNG) strains possessed the mutations in ponA and penA.


CONCLUSIONS
Our data suggested that the plasmid and chromosome mediated penicillin-resistance conjugately increased the level of resistance.
Zhang
Tie-Jun
TJ
Key Laboratory of Public Health Safety, Ministry of Education, China.
Zhou
Xiao-Ming
XM
Zhang
Tao
T
Jiang
Qing-Wu
QW
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D001483:Base Sequence; D004252:DNA Mutational Analysis; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016254:Mutagenesis, Insertional; D009154:Mutation; D009344:Neisseria gonorrhoeae / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000235:genetics*; D010403:Penicillin Resistance / Q000235:genetics*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D018807:Polymorphism, Single-Stranded Conformational
D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D004269:DNA, Bacterial