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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1991 Jun 1;88(11):4781–4785. doi: 10.1073/pnas.88.11.4781

Efflux-mediated multidrug resistance in Bacillus subtilis: similarities and dissimilarities with the mammalian system.

A A Neyfakh 1, V E Bidnenko 1, L B Chen 1
PMCID: PMC51750  PMID: 1675788

Abstract

Bacillus subtilis cells selected for their resistance to rhodamine 6G demonstrated a multidrug-resistance (MDR) phenotype resembling that of mammalian MDR cells. Like MDR in mammalian cells, MDR in bacteria was mediated by the efflux of the drugs from the cells. The bacterial multidrug efflux system transported similar drugs and was sensitive to similar inhibitors as the mammalian multidrug transporter, P-glycoprotein. The gene coding for the bacterial multidrug transporter, like the P-glycoprotein gene in mammalian MDR cells, was amplified in the resistant bacteria. On the other hand, the bacterial multidrug transporter showed no sequence similarity to P-glycoprotein but exhibited an obvious homology to tetracycline efflux pumps and carbohydrate-ion symporters. These results show that the transport of structurally unrelated molecules can be mediated by members of different families of membrane transporters.

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Selected References

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

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