Isolation of bacteria producing chloramphenicol acetyltransferase from soil and their characterization

After screening 107 soil samples collected from different spots around Calcutta, 579 chloramphenicol resistant colonies were isolated. Out of these only 58 colonies could inactivate chloramphenicol in detectable amounts. By noting the production of inactivating factor, 5 high yielding strains were further characterized to species level. Three of them were Escherichia coli strains, the two others were Alcaligenes faecalis and Klebsiella pneumoniae strains. All strains inactivated chloramphenicol by acetylation, with the production of chloramphenicol acetyltransferase. Production of this latter enzyme was not inducible. Minimum inhibitory concentrations for these 5 strains were studied against 14 antimicrobial agents. All strains were found to be resistant to most antimicrobial agents, but sensitive to polymyxin B. The strain A. faecalis was also sensitive to carbenicillin but other four strains were resistant to this antibiotic.