Characterization of the Chromosomal aac(6′)-Iz Gene of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia

The aac(6′)-Iz gene of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia BM2690 encoding an aminoglycoside 6′-N-acetyltransferase was characterized. The gene was identified as a coding sequence of 462 bp corresponding to a protein with a calculated mass of 16,506 Da, a value in good agreement with that of ca. 16,000 found by in vitro coupled transcription-translation. Analysis of the deduced amino acid sequence indicated that the protein was a member of the major subfamily of aminoglycoside 6′-N-acetyltransferases. The enzyme conferred resistance to amikacin but not to gentamicin, indicating that it was an AAC(6′) of type I. The open reading frame upstream from the aac(6′)-Iz gene was homologous to the fprA gene of Myxococcus xanthus (61% identity), which encodes a putative pyridoxine (pyridoxamine) 5′-phosphate oxidase. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis of total DNA from BM2690 and S. maltophilia ATTC 13637 digested with XbaI, DraI, and SpeI followed by hybridization with rRNA and aac(6′)-Iz-specific probes indicated that the gene was located in the chromosome. The aac(6′)-Iz gene was detected by DNA-DNA hybridization in all 80 strains of S. maltophilia tested. The MICs of gentamicin against these strains of S. maltophilia were lower than those of amikacin, netilmicin, and tobramycin, indicating that production of AAC(6′)-Iz contributes to aminoglycoside resistance in S. maltophilia.