Mycobacterium tuberculosis is intrinsically resistant to macrolides, a characteristic associated with expression of the erm(37) gene. This intrinsic resistance was found to be inducible with clarithromycin and the ketolide HMR3004. Furthermore, underlying the phenotypic induction was an increase in erm(37) mRNA levels.

Ericoid mycorrhizal fungi (ERM) may specialize in capturing nutrients from their host's litter as a strategy for regulating nutrient cycles in terrestrial ecosystems. In spite of their potential significance, we know little about the structure of ERM fungal communities and the genetic basis of their saprotrophic traits (e.g., genes encoding extracellular enzymes). Rhododendron maximum is a mode...

We determined the macrolide resistance phenotypes of 241 clinical isolates of erythromycin-resistant enterococci (MICs, > or = 1 microg/ml), including 147 Enterococcus faecalis strains and 94 Enterococcus faecium strains, collected from a hospital in Seoul, Korea, between 1999 and 2000. By the erythromycin (40 micro g)-josamycin (100 microg) double-disk test, 93 strains were assigned to the con...

Sir, Haemophilus parasuis is the causative agent of Glässer’s disease, characterized by fibrinous polyserositis, polyarthritis and meningitis in pigs, which causes considerable economic losses in the swine industry. Macrolide antibiotics inhibit bacterial protein synthesis by binding to the 50S ribosomal subunit. Although macrolides are widely used in the treatment of Gram-positive infections, ...

BACKGROUND Streptococcus pneumoniae (SP) is a Gram-positive, alpha-hemolytic, facultative anaerobic member of the genus Streptococcus. The erythromycin-resistant methylase (erm) gene and macrolide efflux (mef) gene are the 2 main genes that can mediate SP. Transposon (Tn) also plays an important role in the collection and metastasis of the gene. In the present study we investigated the drug res...

Alterations in the erm(A) regulatory region of six clinical isolates of Staphylococcus epidermidis and one of Staphylococcus haemolyticus displaying a constitutive resistance phenotype were investigated. Anovel deletion of 10 bp with respect to the corresponding sequence of Tn554 was identified in the attenuator of a constitutively expressed erm(A) gene of one of the S. epidermidis isolates. Th...

Twenty-two unrelated erythromycin-resistant anginosus group strains (3.2% resistance rate) were assessed for mechanisms of resistance. Streptococcus anginosus accounted for 16 of the 22 isolates. Fifteen isolates harbored the erm(B) gene. The erm(TR) and the mef(E) genes were carried by two isolates each. In three isolates, none of these resistance genes was detected by PCR.

We investigated the sequence and the genetic context of the erm(T) gene in six inducible erythromycin-resistant Streptococcus gallolyticus subsp. pasteurianus (formerly S. bovis biotype II.2) isolates. In all isolates, the erm(T) genes were flanked by two IS1216V-like elements with the same polarity and were found to be inserted in the chromosome.

BACKGROUND This study investigated the molecular characteristics of azithromycin-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae in Taiwan. METHODS A total of 486 non-duplicate isolates of azithromycin-resistant S. pneumoniae recovered from various clinical sources of patients treated at 22 different hospitals in Taiwan from 2006 to 2010. The presence of erm(B) and mef(A) genes using duplex PCR, multilocu...