10.22376/ijpbs.2019.10.1.p1-12 Volume 5 Issue 3 2014 (July- September) Arsenic resistance in bacteria is basically due to a detoxification system encoded by the lessThan i greaterThan ars lessThan /i greaterThan operon. It has been reported in various grams negative as well as gram positive genera. The lessThan i greaterThan E. coli lessThan /i greaterThan chromosomal lessThan i greaterThan ars lessThan /i greaterThan operon and lessThan i greaterThan E. coli lessThan /i greaterThan plasmid R773 borne lessThan i greaterThan ars lessThan /i greaterThan operons were the first ones to be discovered. The lessThan i greaterThan ars lessThan /i greaterThan operon lessThan i greaterThan Staphylococcus aureus lessThan /i greaterThan plasmid pI 258 which shows only 30% structural homology with the lessThan i greaterThan E.coli lessThan /i greaterThan counterpart is representative of gram positive lessThan i greaterThan ars lessThan /i greaterThan operons and is known to show functional homology with the former. Subsequently, the lessThan i greaterThan ars lessThan /i greaterThan operon genes were found in diverse taxa. E.g. lessThan i greaterThan Bacillus, Pseudomonas, Acidiphilium multivorum, Corynebacterium, Streptomyces, Thiobacillus, Exiguobacterium, Clostidium, Synechocystis lessThan /i greaterThan and many others. But this inherent property of arsenic resistance and the presence of lessThan i greaterThan ars lessThan /i greaterThan operon have not yet been reported among the members of the genus lessThan i greaterThan Vibrio lessThan /i greaterThan . We, in our studies came across four Vibrios isolated from marine habitats which showed high levels of resistance towards inorganic arsenic species viz. arsenate ( greaterThan 200mM) and arsenite(3mM). All these strains were PCR positive for lessThan i greaterThan ars lessThan /i greaterThan C gene encoding arsenate reductase using gene specific primers. The size of the amplicon ranged from 353-356 bp and revealed 98-99% homology with the chromosomal lessThan i greaterThan ars lessThan /i greaterThan operon lessThan i greaterThan E.coli lessThan /i greaterThan strain W 3110. NEELAM SINGH, PANKAJ VERMA AND S.K. DUBEY arsenate, arsenite, efflux, amplicon, marine vibrios, ars operon, arsenic resistance 251-259