Plasmid mediated transfer of antibiotic resistance and heavy metal tolerance in thermotolerant water borne coliforms

Abstract

The antibiotic resistance and heavy metal tolerance pattern of 201 water borne thermotolerant coliforms isolated from rural areas were studied. Most of the isolates exhibited resistance to one or more antibiotics under study, and expressed tolerance to multiple metals. Twenty four strains representing different resistance combinations were tested for plasmid transfer to Escherichia coli K-12 recipient strain. Plasmid transfer was detected in all 24 strains studied for conjugation. Among antimicrobials bacitracin, ampicillin, and among metals nickel, copper, cadmium, cobalt, chromium and arsenic resistances were transferred most frequently. Linked transfer of antibiotics and metals was demonstrated in 12 strains. Thirty two cultures of thermotolerant coliforms were studied for R-plasmid curing using acridine orange. Among antibiotics, curing of resistance was observed for streptomycin, cephaloridine and kanamycin. Curing of resistance to nickel, copper, mercury, chromium, copper and arsenic were also observed. The potential health risk of plasmid mediated resistances to antibiotics and metal ions in coliforms isolated from rural drinking water sources is discussed.

Heavy Metals as a Factor Increasing the Functional Genetic Potential of Bacterial Community for Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Biodegradation

“…This can be explained by both the increase of the percentage ratio of taxa characterized by high resistance to heavy metals and the possible horizontal transfer of genes associated with this resistance. Previous studies by Tewari et al (2013) have highlighted the high efficiency of the phenomenon of plasmid transfer in the context of resistance to these xenobiotics [33].…”

Antibiotic resistant pattern of isolated bacteria from Obere River in Orile-Igbon, Oyo State, Nigeria

“…Al-Bahry et al (2009) reported that the source of multiple antibiotic resistant bacteria could be from polluted effluents. Suman et al (2013) revealed that antibiotic resistance and metal tolerance traits are conjugative plasmid borne, as they could be transferred to sensitive strains through the conjugation process. The contamination of Obere River with antibiotic resistant bacteria could be as a result of contamination with sewage or effluents from various sources such as poultry farm, cement industry, market, cassava processing sites and arable crop farm.…”

Microbes and microbial strategies in carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons remediation: a systematic review

“…The major drawback in applying GEMs is the horizontal heterologous gene transfer, including transduction and conjugation among the closely related species living in the surrounding microenvironment (Hussain et al, 2018;González et al, 2022). Additionally, fusants developed from genome shu ing can spread the resistant genes across the soil microorganisms through horizontal gene transfer as their construction are not carried out by the movable genetic elements, i.e., plasmids and transposons (Tewari et al, 2013).…”