1.0 Introduction And Literature Review
1.1 Introduction
The discovery of antibacterial agents had a major impact on the rate of survival from infections. However, the changing patterns of antimicrobial resistance caused a demand for new antibacterial agents. Therefore, the emergence of bacterial resistance to most of the commonly used antibiotics is of considerable medical significance (Khan and Malik, 2001; Oteo et al., 2002).
Antibiotic resistance genes in most bacteria are frequently found in extra chromosomal elements known as R-plasmids. Pseudomonas aeruginosa is naturally resistant to many of the widely used antibiotics, so chemotherapy is often difficult (Dubois et al., 2001).
Resistance is due to a resistance transfer plasmid (R-plasmid) which is a plasmid carrying gene encoding proteins that detoxify various antibiotics (Poole, 2004). Antibiotic resistant bacteria are widespread. Several antibiotic resistant genes can be carried by a single R-plasmid or alternatively, a cell may contain several R plasmids. In either case, the result is multiple resistance (Madigan et al., 2009).
Escherichia coli is a Gram negative bacterium and the main aerobic commensalbacterial species (Alhaj et al., 2007; Von and Marre, 2005). The native habitat of Escherichia coli is the enteric tract of humans and other warm-blooded animals. Therefore, Escherichia coli is widely disseminated in the environment through the faeces of humans and otheranimals and its presence in water is generally considered to indicate faecal contamination and the possible presence of enteric pathogens. Esherichia coli is able to acquire antibiotic resistance easily. Antibiotic resistant Esherichia coli may pass on the genes responsible for antibiotic resistance to other species of bacteria, such as Staphylococcus aureus, through a process called horizontal gene transfer (Dubois et al., 2001).
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