Mutations to antibiotic resistance occur during the stationary phase in Lactobacillus plantarum ATCC 8014.

Abstract

When Lactobacillus plantarum ATCC 8014 was maintained in LCM broth (which consists of buffered tryptone and is sufficient to support the growth of some species of Lactobacillus ) for long periods (120 d), viable bacteria persisted. Rifampicin-, streptomycin- and sodium-fusidate-resistant mutants were recovered from parallel LCM broth cultures following a stochastic pattern. Individual cultures appeared to yield mutants intermittently. One culture in particular yielded rifampicin-resistant colonies at a frequency of 1 in 100 viable bacteria after 20 d incubation and these persisted until the experiment was terminated at 115 d. In a separate experiment two parallel cultures yielded mutants resistant to low concentrations of streptomycin at a similar frequency. Using a chemostat it was shown that in continuous culture in LCM at slow growth rates the highest frequency of recovery of antibiotic-resistant mutants was achieved when the bacteria exhibited doubling times of 90 h or greater. The frequency of recovery of mutants was as high as 1 in 1000 viable bacteria. Thus, mutations to antibiotic resistance in L. plantarum ATCC 8014 can take place in the absence of measurable cell division. The data are consistent with the notion that populations of starved bacteria in stationary phase can be genetically dynamic.