Molecular Mechanisms of Erythromycin Resistance in Mycoplasma Pneumonia

Objective To study erythromycin resistance and determine molecular mechanisms in mycoplasma pneumoniae.Methods Sixty clinical samples were cultured, drug sensitive test was done to identify resistant strain, and then drug-resistant gene was screened.Results Five clinical strains were isolated from 60 samples. Among them four strains were resistant to erythromycin and the percentage was 80%. The 23 S rRNA gene sequences of the susceptible strain and the reference strain were identical to mycoplasma pneumoniae gene in genebank. While four resistant strains had a point mutation respectively, two had A to G transition at position 2063, the other two had A to G transition at position 2064 . None of the five strains had erm gene.Conclusions There is erythromycin resistance in mycoplasma pneumoniae and the molecular mechanism is point mutation in 23 S rRNA, erythromycin ribosomal methylase gene erm gene isn′t founded.