Patent ID: 7005257

Claim:
A process for detecting macrolide antibiotic resistance in microorganisms, comprising the steps of: a) preparing a sample containing microorganisms suspected of being resistant to macrolide antibiotics, b) contacting the sample with a mixture of hybridization probes specific for a region of the peptidyltransferase center from a 23S rRNA, in situ, wherein said mixture of hybridization probes specifically detect a point mutation at a nucleotide which corresponds to one or more of the nucleotides 2032, 2057, 2058, 2059 and 2611 on the E. coli 23S rRNA, under conditions which permit the probes to hybridize specifically, and said mixture of hybridization probes further comprises a hybridization probe specific for a wild type nucleic acid sequence, and c) analyzing the sample by determining the appearance of in situ hybridization between said hybridization probes and nucleic acids in said sample as an indication of macrolide antibiotic resistance, wherein the microorganisms are not cultured prior to contact with said hybridization probe and wherein said hybridization probe specific for a wild type nucleic acid sequence is unlabeled and said hybridization probes which specifically detect a point mutation at a nucleotide which corresponds to one or more of the nucleotides 2032, 2057, 2058, 2059 and 2611 on the E. coli 23S rRNA are labeled.