Arsenic resistance determinants from environmental bacteria

Arsenic resistance determinants from 42 environmental bacterial isolates (32 Gram negative) were analyzed by DNA: DNA hybridization using probes derived from Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus plasmid or chromosomal arsenic resistance (ars) genes. In colony hybridization assays, 11 and 1 Gram negative strains hybridized with the E. coli chromosome and plasmid probes, respectively. No hybridization was detected using a probe containing only the arsA (ATPase) gene from E. coli plasmid or with a Staphylococcus plasmid ars probe. From Southern hybridization tests of some of the positive strains it was concluded that homology to ars chromosomal genes occurred within chromosome regions, except in an E. coli isolate where hybridization occurred in both the chromosome and a 130-kb plasmid. Our results show that DNA sequences homologous to E. coli ars chromosomal genes are commonly present in the chromosomes of environmental arsenic-resistant Gram negative isolates.