The rate of spontaneous mutation to constitutive clindamycin resistance and the kinetics of selection of such mutants in preinduced and non-preinduced cells was evaluated in the Bacteroides vulgatus strain RYC18F6 (original MIC less than or equal to 0.25 micrograms/ml), which shows inducible resistance to clindamycin and erythromycin. Mutants demonstrating a high level of constitutive resistance to clindamycin (64 micrograms/ml) occurred at a frequency of 10(-7). Culture in broth containing either subinhibitory or inhibitory levels of clindamycin resulted in induction of clindamycin resistance. This permitted survival of a part of the population that seemed to facilitate the further growth of constitutively resistant mutants (up to a frequency of 10(-1)). At both low and high clindamycin concentrations mutants appeared to be selected over merely induced cells. Preincubation of cultures with erythromycin gave rise to an apparently higher level of induction. Under these circumstances, the selection of constitutively resistant mutants was less effective (10(-4). The use of erythromycin or clindamycin against populations of Bacteroides spp. exhibiting inducible resistance may contribute to selection of mutants showing constitutive clindamycin resistance.