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. 2011 Apr 6;2(3):250–258. doi: 10.1007/s13238-011-1027-0

An unexpected similarity between antibiotic-resistant NDM-1 and beta-lactamase II from Erythrobacter litoralis

Beiwen Zheng 1,2, Shuguang Tan 1,2, Jia Gao 1,3, Huiming Han 1,2, Jun Liu 1, Guangwen Lu 1,2, Di Liu 1,4, Yong Yi 5, Baoli Zhu 1, George F Gao 1,2,6,✉
PMCID: PMC4875309  PMID: 21468894

Abstract

NDM-1 (New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase) gene encodes a metallo-beta-lactamase (MBL) with high carbapenemase activity, which makes the host bacterial strain easily dispatch the last-resort antibiotics known as carbapenems and cause global concern. Here we present the bioinformatics data showing an unexpected similarity between NDM-1 and beta-lactamase II from Erythrobacter litoralis, a marine microbial isolate. We have further expressed these two mature proteins in E. coli cells, both of which present as a monomer with a molecular mass of 25 kDa. Antimicrobial susceptibility assay reveals that they share similar substrate specificities and are sensitive to aztreonam and tigecycline. The conformational change accompanied with the zinc binding visualized by nuclear magnetic resonance, Zn2+-bound NDM-1, adopts at least some stable tertiary structure in contrast to the metal-free protein. Our work implies a close evolutionary relationship between antibiotic resistance genes in environmental reservoir and in the clinic, challenging the antimicrobial resistance monitoring.

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available for this article at 10.1007/s13238-011-1027-0 and is accessible for authorized users.

Keywords: NDM-1, metallo-β-lactamase, Erythrobacter litoralis, similarity, antibiotics resistance

Electronic supplementary material

13238_2011_1027_MOESM1_ESM.pdf (228KB, pdf)

Supplementary material, approximately 228 KB.

Footnotes

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available for this article at 10.1007/s13238-011-1027-0 and is accessible for authorized users.

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Supplementary Materials

13238_2011_1027_MOESM1_ESM.pdf (228KB, pdf)

Supplementary material, approximately 228 KB.

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