This mutant was also cross-resistant to the three macrolides mentioned above. In this study, the selection of pleuromutilin-resistant mutants of M. gallisepticum was associated with several mutations in 23S rRNA gene. Although a single mutation could cause an increase in tiamulin and valnemulin MICs, high levels of resistance were obtained when combinations of two or three mutations were present. This explains the stepwise decrease in tiamulin and valnemulin

susceptibility observed in this study. Moreover, susceptibility to valnemulin was generally less affected by these 23S rRNA gene mutations than susceptibility to tiamulin. One possible explanation for this difference NVP-BKM120 cost is that the side chain extension of valnemulin can establish additional interactions with the binding cavity and these interactions can reduce the influence of the 23S rRNA gene mutations. Mutations in ribosome protein L3 are the most common determinant of resistance or reduced susceptibility to pleuromutilin antibiotics in several bacterial species. A point mutation in a region of ribosome protein L3 in close proximity to the peptidyl transferase center is responsible for reduced susceptibility to tiamulin in E. coli (Bøsling et al., 2003). Mutations MLN8237 in vitro in the same region of ribosome protein L3 have also been

associated with resistance or decreased susceptibility to pleuromutilins in Brachyspira spp., S. pyogenes and S. aureus (Pringle et al., 2004; Kosowska-Shick et al., 2006; Gentry et al., 2007; Miller et al., 2008). However, no mutations were found in ribosome protein L3 for any M. gallisepticum mutants selected in this study. This result indicated that mutations in ribosome protein L3 are not a preferential method to produce pleuromutilin resistance in M. gallisepticum. Mutations at positions 2032, 2055, 2447, 2499, 2504 and 2572 of 23S rRNA gene have been described

in tiamulin-selected Methamphetamine mutants of Brachyspira spp. (Pringle et al., 2004). However, these mutations were not observed in this study. Instead, mutations at positions 2058, 2059, 2061, 2447 and 2503 were found in domain V of 23S rRNA gene. Of these mutations, the A2503U mutation was present in all the mutants obtained in this study. The crystal structures of pleuromutilins binding on the 50S ribosomal subunit (Schlünzen et al., 2004; Davidovich et al., 2007) showed that A2503 is located in close proximity to the ribosomal binding sites of this class of antibiotics. Interestingly, the recently described Cfr methyltransferase, which methylates A2503 in 23S rRNA gene, can reduce the binding of tiamulin and valnemulin to ribosomes and confer resistance to both drugs in S. aureus and E. coli (Kehrenberg et al., 2005; Long et al., 2006b). Moreover, the Cfr methyltransferase also confers resistance to lincosamides and phenicols.