β-Lactamase gene promoters of 71 clinical strains of Klebsiella oxytoca

Abstract

β-Lactamase gene promoters of 45 clinical Klebsiella oxytoca isolates resistant to β-lactams and exhibiting β-lactamase hyperproduction differed from those in 26 susceptible strains. Direct sequencing revealed one mutation in either the -10 or -35 conserved sequences: a G-to-A transition of the fifth base (67%) or a G-to-T transversion of the first base of the -10 sequence (27%) or a T-to-A transversion in the fourth base in the -35 sequence (4%). One strain carried both the -10 transition and the -35 transversion.