Study of the association of resistance to two drugs in a transferable determinant inSalmonella typhimurium

Abstract

A strain ofS. typhimuriumcarrying transferable determinants, one for resistance to ampicillin (A), another for resistance to streptomycin and sulphonamides (SSu), was irradiated with ultraviolet light. A clone resulting from this treatment had lost streptomycin resistance and now carried the A determinant and a new determinant, ASu. Except for coding for ampicillin resistance, the ASu determinant was homologous with SSu. The A moiety of ASu produced ampicillin (penicillin) resistance of the same degree as the original A determinant. It was therefore concluded that irradiation had resulted in the elimination of the S gene in the SSu determinant and its replacement by an A gene to form ASu. Experiments with the ASu and SSu determinants suggest that there is normally only one copy of a resistance determinant in the host cell and only one cell site into which it can integrate.