Jonas B M, Murray B E, Weinstock G M
Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of Texas Medical School, Houston, Texas 77030, USA.
Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2001 Dec;45(12):3574-9. doi: 10.1128/AAC.45.12.3574-3579.2001.
We hypothesized that multidrug resistance efflux pumps (MDRs) may be contributing to the drug resistance of enterococci. We recently identified potential MDR-encoding genes in the Enterococcus faecalis V583 genome. Among the putative MDRs, we found a gene that encodes a NorA homolog and have characterized this enterococcal MDR in the present study. A mutant from which the enterococcal NorA homolog has been deleted has reduced resistance to several NorA substrates. Complementation of the deletion mutant with the wild-type gene verified the involvement of this enterococcal gene in resistance to ethidium bromide (EtBr) and norfloxacin. Known MDR inhibitors (reserpine, lansoprazole, and verapamil) inhibit the efflux of EtBr and norfloxacin in wild-type strain OG1RF. A fluorescence assay with EtBr allowed us to quantitate the efflux capability of the enterococcal NorA pump. On the basis of these results, we have named this enterococcal gene emeA (enterococcal multidrug resistance efflux).
我们推测多药耐药外排泵(MDRs)可能与肠球菌的耐药性有关。我们最近在粪肠球菌V583基因组中鉴定出了潜在的MDR编码基因。在推定的MDR中,我们发现了一个编码NorA同源物的基因,并在本研究中对这种肠球菌MDR进行了表征。缺失肠球菌NorA同源物的突变体对几种NorA底物的耐药性降低。用野生型基因对缺失突变体进行互补验证了该肠球菌基因与对溴化乙锭(EtBr)和诺氟沙星耐药性的相关性。已知的MDR抑制剂(利血平、兰索拉唑和维拉帕米)可抑制野生型菌株OG1RF中EtBr和诺氟沙星的外排。用EtBr进行的荧光测定使我们能够定量肠球菌NorA泵的外排能力。基于这些结果,我们将这个肠球菌基因命名为emeA(肠球菌多药耐药外排)。