Novel mechanism of resistance to oxazolidinones, macrolides, and chloramphenicol in ribosomal protein L4 of the pneumococcus

Abstract

Two clinical Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates, identified as resistant to macrolides and chloramphenicol and nonsusceptible to linezolid, were found to contain 6-bp deletions in the gene encoding riboprotein L4. The gene transformed susceptible strain R6 so that it exhibited such resistance, with the transformants also showing a fitness cost. We demonstrate a novel bacterial mechanism of resistance to chloramphenicol and nonsusceptibility to linezolid.