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W. Edmund Farrar, Noel M. O'Dell, β-Lactamase Activity in Chromobacterium violaceum, The Journal of Infectious Diseases, Volume 134, Issue 3, September 1976, Pages 290–293, https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/134.3.290
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Abstract
A strain of Chromobacterium violaceum isolated from a fatally infected patient was found to produce a β-lactamase. When the organism was grown in drug-free medium, β-lactamase activity was barely detectable, but when it was grown in the presence of penicillin G, a much larger amount of activity was produced. The β-lactamase was active primarily against cephalosporins; it was sensitive to inhibition by cloxacillin but resistant to p-chloromercuribenzoate. Thus this enzyme closely resembled the common type of β-lactamase found in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The organism was relatively susceptible to ticarcillin, carbenicillin, and cefoxitin, which resisted hydrolysis by its β-lactamase, but was quite resistant to 11 other ~-lactam antibiotics. Production of the β-lactamase appeared to be mediated by chromosomal genes.