Cloning and characterization of the tetracycline resistance determinant from enteropathogenic Escherichia coli p1479.

As part of an epidemiological study, R plasmids coding for tetracycline resistance were isolated from enteropathogenic Escherichia coli. A 1.4kb Pst 1 fragment of one of them p1479 (size 5.7kb) has been cloned into plasmid pGL101. This recombinant plasmid containing the tetracycline gene was then transformed into E. coli DHI where the tetracycline resistant gene was fully expressed. Attempts to develop this clone to a diagnostic probe is now in progress.