Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, October 2000, p. 2719-2727, Vol. 44, No. 10
0066-4804/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Laboratoire de Bactériologie, Université Victor Segalen Bordeaux 2, 33076 Bordeaux, France
Received 27 March 2000/Returned for modification 30 May 2000/Accepted 8 July 2000
We report the cloning and characterization of the gyrA
gene of the Mycoplasma hominis DNA gyrase, which was
previously shown to be associated with quinolone resistance in this
organism. The 2,733-bp gyrA gene encodes a protein of 911 amino acids with a calculated molecular mass of 102.5 kDa. As expected,
M. hominis GyrA exhibits higher homology with the GyrA
subunits of the gram-positive bacteria Clostridium
acetobutylicum, Bacillus subtilis,
Streptococcus pneumoniae, and Staphylococcus
aureus than with its Escherichia coli counterpart.
Knowing the entire sequence of the gyrA gene of M. hominis could be very useful for confirming the role of the GyrA
subunit in fluoroquinolone resistance. Twenty-nine mutants of M. hominis were selected stepwise for resistance to trovafloxacin, a
new potent fluoroquinolone, and their gyrA,
gyrB, parC, and parE quinolone
resistance-determining regions were characterized. Three rounds of
selection yielded 3 first-step, 12 second-step, and 14 third-step
mutants. The first-step mutants harbored a single substitution,
Glu460
Lys (E. coli coordinates), in ParE. GyrA changes,
Ser83
Leu, Glu87
Lys, and Ala119
Glu or Val, were found only in
the second round of selection. At the third step, additional substitutions, at ParC Ser80, Ser81, and Glu84 and ParE Leu440, associated with high-level resistance to fluoroquinolones, appeared. Thus, high-level resistance to trovafloxacin required three steps and
was associated with alterations in both fluoroquinolone targets. According to these genetic data, in M. hominis, as in
Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus
pneumoniae, topoisomerase IV seems to be the primary target of trovafloxacin.
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