title: Transforming a drug/H+ antiporter into a polyamine importer by a single mutation.
abstract: EmrE, a multidrug antiporter from Escherichia coli, has presented biochemists with unusual surprises. Here we describe the transformation of EmrE, a drug/H(+) antiporter to a polyamine importer by a single mutation. Antibiotic resistance in microorganisms may arise by mutations at certain chromosomal loci. To investigate this phenomenon, we used directed evolution of EmrE to assess the rate of development of novel specificities in existing multidrug transporters. Strikingly, when a library of random mutants of EmrE was screened for resistance to two major antibacterial drugs--norfloxacin, a fluoroquinolone, and erythromycin, a macrolide--proteins with single mutations were found capable of conferring resistance. The mutation conferring erythromycin resistance resulted from substitution of a fully conserved and essential tryptophan residue to glycine, and, as expected, this protein lost its ability to recognize and transport the classical EmrE substrates. However, this protein functions now as an electrochemical potential driven importer of a new set of substrates: aliphatic polyamines. This mutant provides a unique paradigm to understand the function and evolution of distinct modes of transport.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Chemistry, Alexander A. Silberman Institute of Life Sciences,  Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 91904 Jerusalem,  Israel.
authors.forename: Shlomo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Brill
authors.forename: Ofir Sade
authors.initials: OS
authors.lastname: Falk
authors.forename: Shimon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schuldiner
mesh_terms: D017920:Antiporters / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D002250:Carbon Radioisotopes / Q000378:metabolism; D019020:Directed Molecular Evolution; D024901:Drug Resistance, Multiple, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics*; D004917:Erythromycin; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics*; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D016296:Mutagenesis; D009154:Mutation / Q000235:genetics*; D009643:Norfloxacin; D010957:Plasmids / Q000235:genetics; D011073:Polyamines / Q000378:metabolism*; D011510:Proteolipids / Q000378:metabolism; D011700:Putrescine / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D017920:Antiporters; D002250:Carbon Radioisotopes; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; D011073:Polyamines; D011510:Proteolipids; C020485:proteoliposomes; C075436:EmrE protein, E coli; D004917:Erythromycin; D009643:Norfloxacin; D011700:Putrescine