Epidemiology of Antibiotic and Heavy Metal Resistance in Bacteria: Resistance Patterns in Staphylococci Isolated from Populations Not Known to be Exposed to Heavy Metals

Abstract

Staphylococci were isolated from clinical specimens obtained from patients not known to be exposed to abnormal levels of heavy metals. The antibiotic and heavy metal resistance patterns of these strains were determined by using a disk diffusion test and computer sorting. Though not absolute, an association of resistance to mercury and tetracycline in coagulase-negative strains was found, in contrast to resistance to copper and penicillin in coagulase-producing strains. A high degree of correlation was observed between the resistance to phenyl mercury and inorganic mercury, but no correlation was obtained between resistance to methylmercury and other metals. In general, strains resistant to many agents were usually coagulase negative. A possible mechanism and implications of these associations are considered.

Isolation and characterization of metal resistant-tolerant rhizosphere bacteria from the serpentine soils in Turkey

“…MICs meaning the lowest metal concentration value at which the growth of bacteria is inhibited were tested by a modified disc diffusion technique, as previously described by Groves and Young (1975). Sterile, blank, paper sensitivity discs (5 mm diameter) were saturated with 10 μl of diluted metal solutions in the range of 50-2,000 mg L −1 and dried for 3 h at 26 • C. Each disk contained 50-100-250-500-750-1000-2000 mg L −1 of Ni, Cd, Pb and Zn to give a zone of inhibition.…”

Mechanisms of microbial resistance and detoxification of mercury and organomercury compounds: physiological, biochemical, and genetic analyses.

“…A frequency of Hgr among hospital populations of staphylococci is reported to be 32%. There is a close association of the Hgr phenotype with tetracycline resistance, a lack of mannitol fermentation, and coagulase-positive phenotype (35). Staphylococci isolated from rural and urban populations of Iraq exposed and not exposed to heavy metals or antibiotics gave different results.…”

Heavy metal pollution impacts soil bacterial community structure and antimicrobial resistance at the Birmingham 35th Avenue Superfund Site

“…Sequences were trimmed using MEGA X (v.10.2.4) (Kumar et al, 2018), and identified using the Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) 16S/ITS BLASTn function against the nr database (BLAST 2.11.0) (Altschul et al, 1990) (Table S8). HMR isolates were subsequently tested for growth on PYT80 with ampicillin, kanamycin, or erythromycin to determine prevalence of cross-resistance (Groves et al, 1975; Wang et al, 2021); strains forming visible colonies in the presence of antibiotics within 7 days were considered tolerant.…”