Worldwide disseminated armA aminoglycoside resistance methylase gene is borne by composite transposon Tn1548

The armA (aminoglycoside resistance methylase) gene, which confers resistance to 4,6-disubstituted deoxystreptamines and fortimicin, was initially found in Klebsiella pneumoniae BM4536 on IncL/M plasmid pIP1204 of ca. 90 kb which also encodes the extended-spectrum P-lactamase CTX-M-3. Thirty-four enterobacteria from various countries that were likely to produce a CTX-M enzyme since they were more resistant to cefotaxime than to ceftazidime were studied. The armA gene was detected in 12 clinical isolates of Citrobacter freundii, Enterobacter cloacae, Escherichia coli, K. pneumoniae, Salmonella enterica, and Shigella flexneri, in which it was always associated with bla(CTX-M-3) on an IncL/M plasmid. Conjugation, analysis of DNA sequences, PCR mapping, and plasmid conduction experiments indicated that the armA gene was part of composite transposon Tn1548 together with genes ant39, sul1, and dfrXII, which are responsible for resistance to streptomycin-spectinomycin, sulfonamides, and trimethoprim, respectively. The 16.6-kb genetic element was flanked by two copies of IS6 and migrated by replicative transposition. This observation accounts for the presence of arm,4 on self-transferable plasmids of various incompatibility groups and its worldwide dissemination. It thus appears that posttranscriptional modification of 16S rRNA confers high-level resistance to all the clinically available aminoglycosides except streptomycin in gram-negative human and animal pathogens.