화학공학소재연구정보센터
Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, Vol.104, No.3, 1149-1161, 2020
Cell permeability, beta-lactamase activity, and transport contribute to high level of resistance to ampicillin in Lysobacter enzymogenes
Discovery of multidrug resistance (MDR) in environmental microorganisms provides unique resources for uncovering antibiotic resistomes, which could be vital to predict future emergence of MDR pathogens. Our previous studies indicated that Lysobacter sp. conferred intrinsic resistance to multiple antibiotics at high levels, especially ampicillin, the first broad-spectrum beta-lactam antibiotics against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms for resistance to ampicillin in Lysobacter enzymogenes strain C3 (LeC3) remain unknown. In this study, screening a Tn5 transposon mutant library of LeC3 recovered 12 mutants with decreased ampicillin resistance, and three mutants (i.e., tatC, lebla, and lpp) were selected for further characterization. Our results revealed that genes encoding beta-lactamase (lebla) and twin-arginine translocation (tatC) system for beta-lactamase transport played a pivotal role in conferring ampicillin resistance in L. enzymogenes. It was also demonstrated that the lpp gene was not only involved in resistance against beta-lactams but also conferred resistance to multiple antibiotics in L. enzymogenes. Permeability assay results indicated that decreased MDR in the lpp mutant was in part due to its higher cellular permeability. Furthermore, our results showed that the difference of LeC3 and L. antibioticus strain LaATCC29479 in ampicillin susceptibility was partly due to their differences in cellular permeability, but not due to beta-lactamase activities.