Resistance mechanisms of kanamycin-, neomycin-, and streptomycin-producing streptomycetes to aminoglycoside antibiotics.

Streptomyces kanamyceticus ISP5500, S. fradiae ISP5063 and S. griseus ISP5236, which produce kanamycin, neomycin or streptomycin respectively, were highly resistant to the antibiotics they produced. Polyphenylalanine synthesis in cell free systems was also resistant to the action of the antibiotics. Reciprocal exchange between ribosomes and S150 fractions from the three strains revealed that the S150 fraction of each strain had an enzyme activity that inactivated the appropriate antibiotic whereas the ribosomes were susceptible to the antibiotics. It was concluded that the resistance of the in vitro polyphenylalanine synthesizing systems of these antibiotics was due to the presence of inactivating enzymes. Furthermore, S. fradiae and S. kanamyceticus were highly resistant to aminocyclitol-containing aminoglycoside antibiotics other than those produced by the two strains. In these cases, the inactivating enzymes were found to have a major role in the resistance mechanism. However, the resistance of S. kanamyceticus ISP5500 to streptomycin seems to be due to resistance at the ribosomal level.