[Problems of resistance of the causative agent of melioidosis to antibiotics].

It was shown that the pathogen causing melioidosis was highly resistant to antibiotics including beta-lactams. Antibiotic sensitive mutants of P. pseudomallei were isolated after mutagenesis induced by nitrosoguanidine. Permeability for 3H-tetracycline and tetracycline sensitivity of the mutant cells was respectively 3 and 20 times as high as those of the initial parent strain. Gas liquid chromatography revealed quantitative and qualitative changes in separate sugars of the lipopolysaccharide structure in antibiotic sensitive mutants as compared to the initial strain.