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A self-transferable plasmid of ca. 80 kb, pIP1204, conferred multiple-antibiotic resistance to Klebsiella pneumoniae BM4536, which was isolated from a urinary tract infection. Resistance to ␤-lactams was due to the bla TEM1 and bla CTX-M genes, resistance to trimethroprim was due to the dhfrXII gene, resistance to sulfonamides was due to the sul1 gene, resistance to streptomycin-spectinomycin was due to the ant3؆9 gene, and resistance to nearly all remaining aminoglycosides was due to the aac3-II gene and a new gene designated armA (aminoglycoside resistance methylase). The cloning of armA into a plasmid in Escherichia coli conferred to the new host high-level resistance to 4,6-disubstituted deoxystreptamines and fortimicin. The deduced sequence of ArmA displayed from 37 to 47% similarity to those of 16S rRNA m 7 G methyltransferases from various actinomycetes, which confer resistance to aminoglycoside-producing strains. However, the low guanine-pluscytosine content of armA (30%) does not favor an actinomycete origin for the gene. It therefore appears that posttranscriptional modification of 16S rRNA can confer high-level broad-range resistance to aminoglycosides in gram-negative human pathogens.

Plasmid pIP1206 was detected in Escherichia coli strain 1540 during the screening of clinical isolates of Enterobacteriaceae for high-level resistance to aminoglycosides. The sequence of this IncFI conjugative plasmid of ca. 100 kb was partially determined. pIP1206 carried the rmtB gene for a ribosome methyltransferase that was shown to modify the N7 position of nucleotide G1405, located in the A site of 16S rRNA. It also contained the qepA (quinolone efflux pump) gene that encodes a 14-transmembrane-segment putative efflux pump belonging to the major facilitator superfamily of proton-dependent transporters. Disruption of membrane proton potential by the efflux pump inhibitor carbonyl cyanide m-chlorophenylhydrazone in a transconjugant harboring the qepA gene resulted in elevation of norfloxacin accumulation. The transporter conferred resistance to the hydrophilic quinolones norfloxacin and ciprofloxacin.

Anaerobic growth of Pseudomonas aeruginosa on nitrate or arginine requires the anr gene, which codes for a positive control element (ANR) capable of functionally complementing an fnr mutation in Escherichia coli. The anr gene was sequenced; it showed 51% identity with the fnr gene at the amino acid sequence level. Four cysteine residues known to be essential in the FNR protein are conserved in ANR. The anr gene product (deduced Mr 27,129) was visualized by the maxicell method and migrated like a 32 kDa protein in gel electrophoresis under denaturing conditions. An anr mutant of P. aeruginosa constructed by gene replacement was defective in nitrate respiration, arginine deiminase activity, and hydrogen cyanide biosynthesis, underscoring the diverse metabolic functions of ANR during oxygen limitation. Pseudomonas fluorescens, Pseudomonas putida, Pseudomonas syringae, and Pseudomonas mendocina all had a functional analogue of ANR, indicating that similar anaerobic control mechanisms exist in these bacteria.

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