Distribution of erythromycin esterase and rRNA methylase genes in members of the family Enterobacteriaceae highly resistant to erythromycin.

The distribution of nucleotide sequences related to ereA, ereB, and ermAM was studied by colony hybridization in 112 strains of members of the family Enterobacteriaceae that are highly resistant to erythromycin. The ereA and ereB genes encoding erythromycin esterases type I and II, respectively, were detected in strains inactivating the 14-membered macrolides erythromycin and oleandomycin. Because all 52 strains resisting these antibiotics by inactivation were detected by ereA (n = 23), ereB (n = 23), or both probes (n = 6), only two classes of genes accounted for this resistance phenotype. The ermAM gene encoding a streptococcal rRNA methylase was detected in 21 strains of Escherichia coli and two strains of Klebsiella spp. Determination of the MICs of macrolide, lincosamide, and streptogramin (MLS) antibiotics demonstrated a correlation between hybridization with ermAM and the so-called MLS resistance phenotype. The presence of 11 strains coresistant to MLS antibiotics that did not hybridize to the ermAM probe suggests that, as in gram-positive organisms, MLS resistance in members of the family Enterobacteriaceae involves more than one class of rRNA methylase. Numerous strains (n = 18) were found to produce both an erythromycin esterase type II and an rRNA methylase. Physical linkage between ereB and ermAM may be responsible for the codissemination of the genes. Despite their exogenous origin, ereB and ermAM are already disseminated in various genera of the Enterobacteriaceae.