Two Different Tetracycline Resistance Mechanisms, Plasmid-Carried tet(L) and Chromosomally Located Transposon-Associated tet(M), Coexist in Lactobacillus sakei Rits 9

Lactobacillus sakei is extensively used as functional starter culture in fermented meat products. One of the safety criteria of a starter culture is the absence of potentially transferable antibiotic resistance determinants. However, tetracycline-resistant L. sakei strains have already been observed. In this paper, we show that tetracycline resistance in L. sakei Rits 9, a strain isolated from Italian Sola cheese made from raw milk, is mediated by a transposon-associated tet(M) gene coding for a ribosomal protection protein and a plasmid-carried tet(L) gene coding for a tetracycline efflux pump. pLS55, the 5-kb plasmid carrying the tet(L) gene, is highly similar to the pMA67 plasmid recently described for Paenibacillus larvae, a species pathogenic to honeybees. pLS55 could be transferred by electroporation into the laboratory strain L. sakei 23K. While the L. sakei 23K transformant containing pLS55 displayed an intermediate tetracycline resistance level (MIC,