Abstract
We have characterized a natural isolate of Staphylococcus epidermidis resistant to heavy metals that carries a small 2391-bp plasmid, pSepCH, encoding the qacC gene. The S. epidermidis qacC gene confers resistance to a number of β-lactam antibiotics and to ethidium bromide in its natural host and in Escherichia coli K12 and Salmonella enterica sv. Typhimurium. This is the first communication of a small multidrug resistance (SMR) pump involved in resistance to β-lactam antibiotics. Experiments using tolC, ompW and ompD mutant strains of S. Typhimurium demonstrated that the β-lactam antibiotic resistance conferred by this pump does not depend on these outer membrane proteins.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 472-477 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | Research in Microbiology |
Volume | 156 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - May 2005 |
Keywords
- Ethidium bromide
- Multidrug resistance
- SMR
- Staphylococcus epidermidis
- qacC
- β-Lactam resistance
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Microbiology
- Molecular Biology