title: Multidrug resistance in bacteria.
abstract: Large amounts of antibiotics used for human therapy, as well as for farm animals and even for fish in aquaculture, resulted in the selection of pathogenic bacteria resistant to multiple drugs. Multidrug resistance in bacteria may be generated by one of two mechanisms. First, these bacteria may accumulate multiple genes, each coding for resistance to a single drug, within a single cell. This accumulation occurs typically on resistance (R) plasmids. Second, multidrug resistance may also occur by the increased expression of genes that code for multidrug efflux pumps, extruding a wide range of drugs. This review discusses our current knowledge on the molecular mechanisms involved in both types of resistance.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3202, USA. nhiroshi@berkeley.edu
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nikaido
mesh_terms: D018528:ATP-Binding Cassette Transporters / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001419:Bacteria / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D024901:Drug Resistance, Multiple, Bacterial; D019450:Genes, MDR; D006801:Humans
chemical_list: D018528:ATP-Binding Cassette Transporters; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D001426:Bacterial Proteins