Antibiotic susceptibility and plasmid profi le of heavy metal resistant Pseudomonas species

Pseudomonas spp. has become increasingly recognized as an emerging opportunistic pathogen. A total of 80 isolates of Pseudomonas spp. were isolated from blood cancer patient from three tertiary hospitals in and around Tirupur and Erode (Dts). The pathogenic strains were subjected to antibiotic susceptibility testing by disk diffusion method. Ten different antibiotic discs were used to determine the drug resistance pattern of the isolates. The antibiotic resistant pattern showed that Pseudomonas spp. had high resistant against Imipenem (65%), Co-Trimoxazole (55%), Kanamycin (55%), Amikacin (55%), Erythromycin (55%), Carbenicillin (55%), Piperacillin (55%), Tetracycline (55%), Levofl oxacin (50%), and Vancomycin (50%), respectively. The isolates were treated with different metals: Copper, Lead and Zinc with different concentrations (0.2, 0.4, 0.6 and 0.8 mg/ml). Electrophoretic analysis of the Plasmid DNA prepared was carried out on a 0.8% agarose gel electrophoresis. Plasmid profi le was carried out for 22 MDR isolates. Four strains (PA 41, PA 43 and PA 44) were showed two fragments (10,000 bp). Whereas the isolate (PA 47) showed single plasmid fragment (6,000 bp).