Interrelationship between Drug Resistance and Bacteriocinogeny of Clostridium perfringens

One hundred and eight strains of Clostridium perfringens were collected from polluted waters and tested for their drug resistance and bacteriocinogeny. Thirty of the strains were tetracycline resistant and 36 were bacteriocinogenic. Only one strain possessed both tetracycline resistance and bacteriocinogen. Transfer experiments on tetracycline resistance and bacteriocinogeny were carried out with several selected strains among these isolates. Both tetracycline resistance and bacteriocinogeny were shown to be transferable by conjugation‐like procedures. Transfer experiments on these two properties revealed that there were two types of recipient strains among the isolates in regard to the acceptance of tetracycline resistance and bacteriocinogeny. In one type of the recipient strain, these two properties seemed to be incompatible although in the other, both tetracycline resistance and bacteriocinogeny were transferred by two‐step mating. Transcipients of this two‐step mating retransferred their tetracycline resistance but not bacteriocinogeny to another recipient strain. The existence of an incompatibility‐like relationship between tetracycline resistance and bacteriocinogeny in one recipient strain, and the inability of these two properties to be co‐transferred from the two‐step transcipients, suggest a certain interrelationship between the factors responsible for tetracycline resistance and bacteriocinogeny.