PERFILES DE SUSCEPTIBILIDAD A LOS ANTIBIOTICOS EN CEPAS DEL GENERO BACILLUS AISLADAS DE AMBIENTES ACUÁTICOS EXTREMOS DEL ECUADOR

Abstract

Introduction. The water of aquatic ecosystems considered extreme, given the values of its physicochemical and chemical parameters, such as high concentrations of salts, oligotrophic environments, extreme pH, high radiation and extreme temperatures, there is a bacterial population that has adapted to these conditions and that they can be an important reservoir of natural resistomes. Objective. The objective of the present work was to know the profiles of susceptibility to various antibiotics in strains of the Bacillus genus isolated from mineromedicinal water spas and water from a volcanic crater lake in Ecuador. Materials and methods. A total of 16 mineromedicinal water samples and 32 samples of crater volcanic lake water were analyzed. The isolation of the Bacillus colonies was carried out by the membrane filtration technique, using Millipore filters of 0.45 μm pore, a sample volume of 100 mL and R2A agar. The isolated strains were identified following the schemes of MacFaddin (2004), complemented with the biochemical tests of the Microgen galleries for Bacillus. The antibiotic resistance profile was determined by the plate diffusion method of Kirby and Bauer (1966), interpreted according to the CLSI (2019). Results. 19 Bacillus strains were identified. Most of the strains were resistant and multi-resistant to the antibiotic clindamycin, erythromycin, gentamicin, oxacillin, and penicillin. Conclusions. The results indicate the presence of Bacillus species and resistomes associated with this genus in the water of extreme natural environments in Ecuador, which suggests that these environments may be an important reservoir of bacteria resistant to antibiotics.