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Characterization and Transferability of erm and tet Antibiotic Resistance Genes in Lactobacillus spp. Isolated from Traditional Fermented Milk

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Abstract

Lactobacillus is a widely used bacteria and consumed through various fermented foods and beverages. Strains have been shown to carry resistance genes and mobile genetic elements with their ability to transfer the resistance to sensitive pathogenic strains. To study this, 4 cultures of Lactobacillus were isolated from traditional fermented milk. The isolates were able to grow up to 4% (w/v) NaCl concentration and 45 °C temperature, and showed > 97% 16S rRNA gene similarities with Lactobacillus fermentum. All the isolates were phenotypically screened for the presence of antibiotic resistance. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) as microbiological breakpoints were observed against a varied class of antibiotics. Isolates AKO 94.6, DVM 95.7, and NIFTEM 95.8 were explicitly resistant to ampicillin, ciprofloxacin and vancomycin with MIC well beyond the maximum range of 256 µg/ml in the E-strip test. While isolate SKL1 was sensitive to ampicillin and showed MIC at 0.25 µg/ml but resistant to streptomycin and trimethoprim (MIC > 256 µg/ml). Molecular characterization showed the presence of tet(M) gene in three isolates SKL1, DVM 95.7, and NIFTEM 95.8 which was chromosomally associated resistance determinants while erm(B) resistance gene was detected in isolates DVM 95.7 and NIFTEM 95.8 only which was a plasmid associated gene and could be transferrable conjugally. Gene for Tn916 family (xis) was also observed in isolates DVM 95.7 and NIFTEM 95.8. Transferability of antibiotic resistance to pathogenic recipient strains was examined in isolates DVM 95.7 and NIFTEM 95.8 in different food matrices. The highest conjugation frequency with ~ 10–1 was obtained in alfalfa seed sprouts. This study reports the presence of acquired gene resistance in Lactobacillus species and dissemination to susceptible strains of bacteria in different food matrices. 16S rRNA gene sequences of isolates were uploaded to the NCBI GenBank database to retrieve the accession number.

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Funding

The work is funded by the National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management (NIFTEM) Kundli, Sonepat (India).

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  1. Vijendra Mishra is deceased.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management (NIFTEM), Sonipat, Haryana, 131028, India

    Anup Kumar Ojha & Vijendra Mishra

  2. Food and Nutritional Sciences, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, SAR, China

    Nagendra Prasad Shah

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  1. Anup Kumar Ojha
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AKO contributed to conceiving, writing the manuscript, prepared figures. NPS contributed to refining the manuscript and VM conceived, revised the manuscript. All authors read and approved the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Nagendra Prasad Shah.

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Ojha, A.K., Shah, N.P. & Mishra, V. Characterization and Transferability of erm and tet Antibiotic Resistance Genes in Lactobacillus spp. Isolated from Traditional Fermented Milk. Curr Microbiol 79, 339 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-022-02980-9

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