Antibiotic Resistance of Pectobacterium Korean Strains Susceptible to the Bacteriophage phiPccP-1

Abstract

Commercial products with antibiotics like streptomycin as active ingredients have been used to control soft rot disease caused by Pectobacterium species for a long time. In this study, antibiotic resistance of twenty-seven Korean strains of Pectobacterium species including P. carotovorum, P. odoriferum, P. brasiliense, and P. parmenteri, which were previously shown to be susceptible to the bacteriophage phiPccP-1 was surveyed using a disk diffusion assay. While all strains were highly susceptible to ampicillin, kanamycin, chloramphenicol, tetracycline, and rifampicin, some strains showed weak susceptibility to 300 μg/ml of streptomycin. Furthermore, some of them are partially or completely resistant to commercial pesticides—Buramycin and streptomycin at the concentration of 250 μg/ml that is recommended by the manufacturer for streptomycin-based pesticides. These results indicate the presence of streptomycin-resistant Pectobacterium strains in South Korea, and the development of antibiotic alternatives to control soft rot is needed.

Keywords

• antibiotic resistance
• pectobacterium
• soft rot
• streptomycin