Characterization of an antibiotic resistance plasmid pAV5 and its constituent replicons in Acinetobacter calcoaceticus

SummaryA non-transmissible plasmid, pAV5, was isolated from a hospital strain ofAcinetobacter calcoaceticus, JC17. pAV5 confers resistance to the antibiotics tetracycline and neomycin in the genetically characterized strain of A.calcoaceticusEBF 65/65. Transfer of pAV5 can be mediated by the sex factors pAV1 and R751; transfer is occasionally associated with the segregation of the resistance determinants amongst the transconjugants. Phenotypic dissociation of pAV5 corresponds with the formation of two independent plasmids designated pAV51 and pAV52 mediating resistance to neomycin and tetracycline respectively.