Chloramphenicol acetyltransferase should not provide methanogens with resistance to chloramphenicol

Growth of the four methanogens investigated was inhibited by chloramphenicol-3-acetate; therefore, introduction of chloramphenicol acetyltransferase-encoding genes should not confer chloramphenicol resistance on these methanogens. Reduction of the aryl nitro group of chloramphenicol produced a compound which did not inhibit the growth of these methanogens.