The emergence and dissemination of multidrug-resistant bacteria posed a serious challenge for Animal husbandry. In this study, using E. coli as the research material, professor Liu Siguo and his research team of animal bacterial diseases at the Harbin Veterinary Research Institute (HVRI) revealed that a susceptible plasmid free with any resistant genes might evolve into an antibiotic resistance-encoding plasmid when they were present in the same bacteria. The rate of exchange of resistance genes between two type plasmids will apparently increase in the corresponding antibiotics selective pressure. This finding showed that an ESBL gene (blaCTX-M-14b) was integrated into the backbone of another cfr-positive plasmid via homologous recombination; hence the novel multidrug-resistant plasmid can confer resistance to at least ten classes of antimicrobial agents.

The study will contribute to the antibacterial treatment selecting suitable antibiotics, low emergence of drug resistance, food safety as well as human health. This achievement has been published the latest issue of the Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy .

http://aac.asm.org/content/59/2/1337.full.pdf+html?sid=e7559c73-42ec-4c14-99a3-c83ba9298ffe