[Transferable tetracycline resistance in "Clostridium difficile" (author's transl)]

Abstract

Tetracycline (Tc) resistance is transferable from a resistant strain of Clostridium difficile to a sensitive strain and this resistance is not curable. Resistances to erythromycin and clindamycin are curable but not transferable. These results suggest for these resistances a plasmid determinism. It is shown that a plasmid-mediated Tc resistance (pIP401) of C. perfringens is also transferable to C. difficile. Tc resistance is inducible in C. perfringens and constitutively expressed in C. difficile. In the Tc-resistant transcipients of C. difficile this resistance is either inducible or constitutive, whether the Tc-resistant donor strain was C. perfringens or C. difficile.