[R-factors of mercury resistance in bacteria isolated in the mercury-antimony deposit region]

Most of bacterial cells in soil samples taken from a mine at the Khaidarkan mercury-antimony deposit (Kirghiz SSR) proved to contain R-plasmids with determinants of mercury resistance (HgCl2). Plasmids had a high molecular mass (approximately 10(8], though some deviated substantially from this size; at least part of them were transmissible. Many Hgr bacteria also showed an increased resistance to antimony (SbCl3), but no relation could be found between this character and the plasmids. Bacteria from soil samples taken at different distances from the mine were virtually devoid of Hgr plasmids: saturation of bacteria with Hgr factors is maintained by selective pressure action only within regions with high concentration of poison. Hgr plasmids at the Khaidarkan deposit were also found in enteric bacteria isolates from the gut of Mus musculus mice and Bufo viridis toads. Some bacterial plasmids from animals carried, apart from Hgr, antibiotic resistance determinants (Tcr, Cmr, Smr), i.e. were multiple resistance factors. These plasmids often displayed intrinsic instability and lost resistance determinants when conjugationally transferred to some E. coli strains.