Phage F-116 transduction of antibiotic resistance from a clinical isolate of Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

The lysate of phage F-116, propagated in a multiple drug resistant clinical isolate of Pseudomonas aeruginosa No. 131 was used to transduce determinants of antibiotic resistance to susceptible auxotrophic laboratory strains of the same species. The phage preparation, designated F-116/131 was found to transduce four determinants of resistance, i.e. to imipenem, cefotaxime, kanamycin and carbenicillin, but not to streptomycin, gentamicin, ceftazidime nor ciprofloxacin/ofloxacin. No conjugal transfer of any resistance determinants could be demonstrated in mating experiments using strain No. 131 and two rifampicin-resistant strains of P. aeruginosa which were highly susceptible to all antibiotics studied. These results might suggest that transduction could be an additional way to conjugational transfer of antibiotic resistance among P. aeruginosa.