Skip to main content
PMC home page
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1983 Dec;80(24):7556–7560. doi: 10.1073/pnas.80.24.7556

ampC beta-lactamase hyperproduction in Escherichia coli: natural ampicillin resistance generated by horizontal chromosomal DNA transfer from Shigella.

O Olsson, S Bergström, F P Lindberg, S Normark
PMCID: PMC534379  PMID: 6369321

Abstract

Six ampicillin-resistant clinical isolates of Escherichia coli that hyperproduced the chromosomal ampC beta-lactamase were studied. By DNA sequence analysis, we found that five of them were identical over an entire 449-base-pair sequence and carried a novel strong ampC promoter [Olsson, O., Bergström, S. & Normark, S. (1982) EMBO J. 1, 1411-1416]. Except for one base pair this sequence was identical to that of a low beta-lactamase-producing clinical isolate of Shigella sonnei. Spontaneous one-step mutants of S. sonnei that overproduced the ampC beta-lactamase by 45-fold were characterized and found to be mutated at the single base that distinguishes S. sonnei from the five E. coli hyperproducers. The most likely explanation for this result is that chromosomal DNA was transferred in vivo from Shigella to E. coli across the species barrier.

Full text

PDF
7556

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Akusjärvi G., Pettersson U. Sequence analysis of adenovirus DNA. I. Nucleotide sequence at the carboxy-terminal end of the gene for adenovirus type 2 hexon. Virology. 1978 Dec;91(2):477–480. doi: 10.1016/0042-6822(78)90394-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. BERTANI G. Studies on lysogenesis. I. The mode of phage liberation by lysogenic Escherichia coli. J Bacteriol. 1951 Sep;62(3):293–300. doi: 10.1128/jb.62.3.293-300.1951. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Benton W. D., Davis R. W. Screening lambdagt recombinant clones by hybridization to single plaques in situ. Science. 1977 Apr 8;196(4286):180–182. doi: 10.1126/science.322279. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Bergström S., Lindberg F. P., Olsson O., Normark S. Comparison of the overlapping frd and ampC operons of Escherichia coli with the corresponding DNA sequences in other gram-negative bacteria. J Bacteriol. 1983 Sep;155(3):1297–1305. doi: 10.1128/jb.155.3.1297-1305.1983. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Bergström S., Normark S. Beta-lactam resistance in clinical isolates of Escherichia coli caused by elevated production of the ampC-mediated chromosomal beta-lactamase. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 1979 Oct;16(4):427–433. doi: 10.1128/aac.16.4.427. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Bergström S., Olsson O., Normark S. Common evolutionary origin of chromosomal beta-lactamase genes in enterobacteria. J Bacteriol. 1982 May;150(2):528–534. doi: 10.1128/jb.150.2.528-534.1982. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Edlund T., Grundström T., Normark S. Isolation and characterization of DNA repetitions carrying the chromosomal beta-lactamase gene of Escherichia coli K-12. Mol Gen Genet. 1979 Jun 7;173(2):115–125. doi: 10.1007/BF00330301. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Grundström T., Jaurin B. Overlap between ampC and frd operons on the Escherichia coli chromosome. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1982 Feb;79(4):1111–1115. doi: 10.1073/pnas.79.4.1111. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Hines J. C., Ray D. S. Construction and characterization of new coliphage M13 cloning vectors. Gene. 1980 Nov;11(3-4):207–218. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(80)90061-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Hu N., Messing J. The making of strand-specific M13 probes. Gene. 1982 Mar;17(3):271–277. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(82)90143-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Jaurin B., Grundström T., Edlund T., Normark S. The E. coli beta-lactamase attenuator mediates growth rate-dependent regulation. Nature. 1981 Mar 19;290(5803):221–225. doi: 10.1038/290221a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Jaurin B., Grundström T., Normark S. Sequence elements determining ampC promoter strength in E. coli. EMBO J. 1982;1(7):875–881. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1982.tb01263.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Jaurin B., Grundström T. ampC cephalosporinase of Escherichia coli K-12 has a different evolutionary origin from that of beta-lactamases of the penicillinase type. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1981 Aug;78(8):4897–4901. doi: 10.1073/pnas.78.8.4897. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Jaurin B., Normark S. In vivo regulation of chromosomal beta-lactamase in Escherichia coli. J Bacteriol. 1979 Jun;138(3):896–902. doi: 10.1128/jb.138.3.896-902.1979. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Jaurin B., Normark S. Insertion of IS2 creates a novel ampC promoter in Escherichia coli. Cell. 1983 Mar;32(3):809–816. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(83)90067-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Laurell C. B. Quantitative estimation of proteins by electrophoresis in agarose gel containing antibodies. Anal Biochem. 1966 Apr;15(1):45–52. doi: 10.1016/0003-2697(66)90246-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Lemire B. D., Robinson J. J., Weiner J. H. Identification of membrane anchor polypeptides of Escherichia coli fumarate reductase. J Bacteriol. 1982 Dec;152(3):1126–1131. doi: 10.1128/jb.152.3.1126-1131.1982. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Messing J., Crea R., Seeburg P. H. A system for shotgun DNA sequencing. Nucleic Acids Res. 1981 Jan 24;9(2):309–321. doi: 10.1093/nar/9.2.309. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Olsson O., Bergström S., Normark S. Identification of a novel ampC beta-lactamase promoter in a clinical isolate of Escherichia coli. EMBO J. 1982;1(11):1411–1416. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1982.tb01331.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Sanger F., Nicklen S., Coulson A. R. DNA sequencing with chain-terminating inhibitors. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1977 Dec;74(12):5463–5467. doi: 10.1073/pnas.74.12.5463. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Siebenlist U., Simpson R. B., Gilbert W. E. coli RNA polymerase interacts homologously with two different promoters. Cell. 1980 Jun;20(2):269–281. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(80)90613-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Tinoco I., Jr, Borer P. N., Dengler B., Levin M. D., Uhlenbeck O. C., Crothers D. M., Bralla J. Improved estimation of secondary structure in ribonucleic acids. Nat New Biol. 1973 Nov 14;246(150):40–41. doi: 10.1038/newbio246040a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Uhlin B. E., Schweickart V., Clark A. J. New runaway-replication-plasmid cloning vectors and suppression of runaway replication by novobiocin. Gene. 1983 May-Jun;22(2-3):255–265. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(83)90110-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. VOGEL H. J., BONNER D. M. Acetylornithinase of Escherichia coli: partial purification and some properties. J Biol Chem. 1956 Jan;218(1):97–106. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America are provided here courtesy of National Academy of Sciences

RESOURCES