Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy logoLink to Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy
. 1997 Dec;41(12):2770–2772. doi: 10.1128/aac.41.12.2770

Selection of multiple-antibiotic-resistant (mar) mutants of Escherichia coli by using the disinfectant pine oil: roles of the mar and acrAB loci.

M C Moken, L M McMurry, S B Levy
PMCID: PMC164207  PMID: 9420057

Abstract

Mutants of Escherichia coli selected for resistance to the disinfectant pine oil or to a household product containing pine oil also showed resistance to multiple antibiotics (tetracycline, ampicillin, chloramphenicol, and nalidixic acid) and overexpressed the marA gene. Likewise, antibiotic-selected Mar mutants, which also overexpress marA, were resistant to pine oil. Deletion of the mar or acrAB locus, the latter encoding a multidrug efflux pump positively regulated in part by MarA, increased the susceptibility of wild-type and mutant strains to pine oil.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (315.1 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Amábile-Cuevas C. F., Demple B. Molecular characterization of the soxRS genes of Escherichia coli: two genes control a superoxide stress regulon. Nucleic Acids Res. 1991 Aug 25;19(16):4479–4484. doi: 10.1093/nar/19.16.4479. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Ariza R. R., Cohen S. P., Bachhawat N., Levy S. B., Demple B. Repressor mutations in the marRAB operon that activate oxidative stress genes and multiple antibiotic resistance in Escherichia coli. J Bacteriol. 1994 Jan;176(1):143–148. doi: 10.1128/jb.176.1.143-148.1994. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Ariza R. R., Li Z., Ringstad N., Demple B. Activation of multiple antibiotic resistance and binding of stress-inducible promoters by Escherichia coli Rob protein. J Bacteriol. 1995 Apr;177(7):1655–1661. doi: 10.1128/jb.177.7.1655-1661.1995. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Cohen S. P., Hächler H., Levy S. B. Genetic and functional analysis of the multiple antibiotic resistance (mar) locus in Escherichia coli. J Bacteriol. 1993 Mar;175(5):1484–1492. doi: 10.1128/jb.175.5.1484-1492.1993. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Cohen S. P., Levy S. B., Foulds J., Rosner J. L. Salicylate induction of antibiotic resistance in Escherichia coli: activation of the mar operon and a mar-independent pathway. J Bacteriol. 1993 Dec;175(24):7856–7862. doi: 10.1128/jb.175.24.7856-7862.1993. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Curiale M. S., Levy S. B. Two complementation groups mediate tetracycline resistance determined by Tn10. J Bacteriol. 1982 Jul;151(1):209–215. doi: 10.1128/jb.151.1.209-215.1982. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. George A. M., Levy S. B. Amplifiable resistance to tetracycline, chloramphenicol, and other antibiotics in Escherichia coli: involvement of a non-plasmid-determined efflux of tetracycline. J Bacteriol. 1983 Aug;155(2):531–540. doi: 10.1128/jb.155.2.531-540.1983. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Goda S. K., Minton N. P. A simple procedure for gel electrophoresis and northern blotting of RNA. Nucleic Acids Res. 1995 Aug 25;23(16):3357–3358. doi: 10.1093/nar/23.16.3357. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Greenberg J. T., Chou J. H., Monach P. A., Demple B. Activation of oxidative stress genes by mutations at the soxQ/cfxB/marA locus of Escherichia coli. J Bacteriol. 1991 Jul;173(14):4433–4439. doi: 10.1128/jb.173.14.4433-4439.1991. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Greenberg J. T., Monach P., Chou J. H., Josephy P. D., Demple B. Positive control of a global antioxidant defense regulon activated by superoxide-generating agents in Escherichia coli. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1990 Aug;87(16):6181–6185. doi: 10.1073/pnas.87.16.6181. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Grinius L. L., Goldberg E. B. Bacterial multidrug resistance is due to a single membrane protein which functions as a drug pump. J Biol Chem. 1994 Nov 25;269(47):29998–30004. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Lyon B. R., Skurray R. Antimicrobial resistance of Staphylococcus aureus: genetic basis. Microbiol Rev. 1987 Mar;51(1):88–134. doi: 10.1128/mr.51.1.88-134.1987. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Ma D., Alberti M., Lynch C., Nikaido H., Hearst J. E. The local repressor AcrR plays a modulating role in the regulation of acrAB genes of Escherichia coli by global stress signals. Mol Microbiol. 1996 Jan;19(1):101–112. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2958.1996.357881.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Ma D., Cook D. N., Alberti M., Pon N. G., Nikaido H., Hearst J. E. Genes acrA and acrB encode a stress-induced efflux system of Escherichia coli. Mol Microbiol. 1995 Apr;16(1):45–55. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2958.1995.tb02390.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Maneewannakul K., Levy S. B. Identification for mar mutants among quinolone-resistant clinical isolates of Escherichia coli. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 1996 Jul;40(7):1695–1698. doi: 10.1128/aac.40.7.1695. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Martin R. G., Jair K. W., Wolf R. E., Jr, Rosner J. L. Autoactivation of the marRAB multiple antibiotic resistance operon by the MarA transcriptional activator in Escherichia coli. J Bacteriol. 1996 Apr;178(8):2216–2223. doi: 10.1128/jb.178.8.2216-2223.1996. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Nakajima H., Kobayashi K., Kobayashi M., Asako H., Aono R. Overexpression of the robA gene increases organic solvent tolerance and multiple antibiotic and heavy metal ion resistance in Escherichia coli. Appl Environ Microbiol. 1995 Jun;61(6):2302–2307. doi: 10.1128/aem.61.6.2302-2307.1995. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Nikaido H. Multidrug efflux pumps of gram-negative bacteria. J Bacteriol. 1996 Oct;178(20):5853–5859. doi: 10.1128/jb.178.20.5853-5859.1996. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Nikaido H. Prevention of drug access to bacterial targets: permeability barriers and active efflux. Science. 1994 Apr 15;264(5157):382–388. doi: 10.1126/science.8153625. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Okusu H., Ma D., Nikaido H. AcrAB efflux pump plays a major role in the antibiotic resistance phenotype of Escherichia coli multiple-antibiotic-resistance (Mar) mutants. J Bacteriol. 1996 Jan;178(1):306–308. doi: 10.1128/jb.178.1.306-308.1996. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Paulsen I. T., Brown M. H., Littlejohn T. G., Mitchell B. A., Skurray R. A. Multidrug resistance proteins QacA and QacB from Staphylococcus aureus: membrane topology and identification of residues involved in substrate specificity. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1996 Apr 16;93(8):3630–3635. doi: 10.1073/pnas.93.8.3630. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Paulsen I. T., Brown M. H., Skurray R. A. Proton-dependent multidrug efflux systems. Microbiol Rev. 1996 Dec;60(4):575–608. doi: 10.1128/mr.60.4.575-608.1996. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Paulsen I. T., Littlejohn T. G., Rådström P., Sundström L., Sköld O., Swedberg G., Skurray R. A. The 3' conserved segment of integrons contains a gene associated with multidrug resistance to antiseptics and disinfectants. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 1993 Apr;37(4):761–768. doi: 10.1128/aac.37.4.761. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Rouch D. A., Cram D. S., DiBerardino D., Littlejohn T. G., Skurray R. A. Efflux-mediated antiseptic resistance gene qacA from Staphylococcus aureus: common ancestry with tetracycline- and sugar-transport proteins. Mol Microbiol. 1990 Dec;4(12):2051–2062. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2958.1990.tb00565.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Seoane A. S., Levy S. B. Characterization of MarR, the repressor of the multiple antibiotic resistance (mar) operon in Escherichia coli. J Bacteriol. 1995 Jun;177(12):3414–3419. doi: 10.1128/jb.177.12.3414-3419.1995. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. Tennent J. M., Lyon B. R., Gillespie M. T., May J. W., Skurray R. A. Cloning and expression of Staphylococcus aureus plasmid-mediated quaternary ammonium resistance in Escherichia coli. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 1985 Jan;27(1):79–83. doi: 10.1128/aac.27.1.79. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy are provided here courtesy of American Society for Microbiology (ASM)

RESOURCES