Antibiotic sensitivity and mutation rates to antibiotic resistance inMycoplasma mycoidesssp.mycoides

Abstract

SUMMARYThe antibiotic resistance ofMycoplasma mycoidesssp.mycoidesstrain T1was investigated. This strain was resistant to high levels ( > 100 μg ml−1) of rifampicin and nalidixic acid. It was sensitive to streptomycin, spectinomycin and novobiocin; however, single step mutants with high levels of resistance ( > 100 μg ml−1) were readily isolated. With erythromycin and tylosin for which the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) for the parent strain was < 0·1 μg ml−1, mutants resistant to > 100 μg ml−1were obtained in two and three steps respectively. The MIC of tetracycline in single step resistant mutants (0·6 μg ml−1) was tenfold higher than the parent strain, but could not be increased further. There was only a twofold increase in resistance to chloramphenicol in single step mutants. The frequency of resistant mutants varied with the antibiotic and was between 4× 10minuss;6and 2× 10−8. The mutation rate to antibiotic resistance to streptomycin, spectinomycin, novobiocin, erythromycin and tylosin was between 3× 10−8and 5× 10−9per cell per generation. There was a fivefold decrease in mutation rate to resistance to 60 μg ml−1streptomycin compared to that to 20 μg ml−1.