Characterization of a wide host range plasmid pANV-6 from Citrobacter diversus

pANV-6 is a 5.85 kb, streptomycin resistant, high copy number plasmid isolated from a multi drug resistant clinical isolate of C. diversus by transformation in Escherichia coli C-600. The plasmid was very stable, noncurable and could not be amplified with chloramphenicol. It was non-conjugative among Enterobacteriaceae hosts. Plasmid was transferred by transformation to several Gram negative and Gram positive hosts. These included Esch. coli, Serratia marcescens, Salmonella typhimurium, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, Corynebacterium glutamicum. From Staph. aureus it was transferred by conjugation to other Staph. aureus, Staph. epidermidis and Bacillus subtilis. Plasmid was incompatible with standard plasmids belonging to incompatibility groups H1, H2 = S,J,P and T of coliform bacteria. Plasmid has one site for restriction enzyme EcoRI and Pst I, three for Bgl 1 and non for Bgl 1, Bam HI, Hind III and X ba I.