Abstract

Plasmids have been known to play a major role in the dissemination of antibiotics resistance genes in a microbial population. In this background, 148 Proteus species comprising of 97 Proteus mirabilis and 51 Proteus vulgaris were isolated from diabetic wounds. Seventy-six strains had varied multi-drug resistance (MDR) pattern encoded on transferable plasmid gene with a very high frequency (2 x10^-4 to 4 x 10^-2per donor cell) by conjugation. 34% of the strains lost the antibiotic resistance plasmids marker after sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) mediated curing. The rest of the plasmid markers were non transferable. The results indicated that plasmids carry varied dissemination of antibiotics resistance markers to distant recipient cells, indicating clonal transfer among bacterial strains.  

Key words: Resistant, plasmids, Proteus, diabetic, wounds.