Inefficacy of Plasmid Curing Agents to Eliminate Plasmids in a MDR Strain of Cirobacter sp. (BMSCt1) Padhan Monalisa1, Pattnaik Smaranika2,* 1Senior Research Fellow, DST, Govt. of India, 2Assistant Professor (II), Department of Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, Sambalpur University, Jyoti Vihar, Burla, Odisha *Corresponding author: Smaranika Pattnaik, Assistant Professor (II), Department of Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, Sambalpur University, Jyoti Vihar, Burla, Odisha, 768019, smaranika2010@gmail.com
Online published on 6 April, 2019. Abstract Introduction The spread of antibiotic resistance among the infectious agents is the major hurdle in the process of clinical practices. In this context, plasmid plays a vital role in the acquisition as well as dissemination of drug resistance. Plasmids are the extra-chromosomal circular DNA harboured with drug resistant gene cassettes. Research works are in progress to eliminate the plasmids from the drug resistant bacteria using ‘relevant curing’ agents thus making the resistant strain as sensitive. Hence, this study is defined to carry out experiments on a MDR strain of Citrobacter sp. harboured with more than one number of plasmids. Materials and Method Clinically isolated strain (BMSCt1) of a bacteria were subjected to “Sensitivity test” followed by a plasmid profile study and Congo Red assay for Biofilm production. The multidrug resistant bacterial strain harboured with plasmids was exposed to various concentration of plasmid curing agents namely: Acridine Orange, Ethidium bromide and Sodium Dodecyl Sulphate. Results The isolated bacterial strain (BMSCt1) was identified as strains of Citrobacter sp., conferring resistance to all test antibiotics, harboured with more than one number of plasmids and producing sufficient biofilm. The results obtained from the plasmid curing experiments have inferred about in efficacy of all test plasmid curing agents to cure the plasmids from the cells of BMSCt1 grown with test concentrations of curing agents. Conclusion The ‘in efficacy” of the three plasmid curing agents could be due to restricted diffusion of curing agents through the biofilm into the bacterial cells. Top Keywords MDR, Plasmid harboured, Citrobacter strain, Curing agent, Biofilm. Top |