Characterization of a Nosocomially Significant, Multiple Drug-Resistant Strain of Serratia marcescens

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Abstract
A multiple drug-resistant strain of Serratia marcescens (bacteriocin type 18) was isolated from three clinical patients. The isolates were found to carry a conjugally nontransferable, nonmobilizeable resistance plasmid (R-plasmid) with resistance-(r-)determinants against ten antimicrobial drugs: ampicillin, carbenicillin, chloramphenicol, gentamicin, kanamycin, neomycin, streptomycin, tobramycin, triple sulfonamides, cotrimoxazole, and – possibly – nalidixic acid, as determined with exposure to ‘curing’agents (ethidium bromide, acridine orange, and sodium dodecyl sulfate) and by the high rate of spontaneous loss of r-determinants. Dye-buoyant density centrifugation allowed recovery of R-plasmid DNA that measured roughly 24 μm in contour length; after ‘curing’ with concomitant loss of 9 r-determinants, the contour length of the R-plasmid DNA of one isolate (No. SE 154) had decreased to roughly 15 μm, and none was detected in the sole variant of the isolate that spontaneously had lost 11 r-determinants.