Sk. Banerjee et al., IDENTIFICATION OF AN ABC TRANSPORTER GENE THAT EXHIBITS MESSENGER-RNALEVEL OVEREXPRESSION IN FLUOROQUINOLONE-RESISTANT MYCOBACTERIUM-SMEGMATIS, FEBS letters, 425(1), 1998, pp. 151-156
We describe here the PCR amplification of a DNA fragment (mtp1) from M
ycobacterium smegmatis using primers derived from consensus sequences
of the ABC family of transporters. The fragment encodes amino acid seq
uences that exhibited significant homology with different ABC transpor
ters. Amino acid sequence alignment of the full length gene with other
transporters identified the ABC protein as the B-subunit of the phosp
hate specific transporter. Strikingly, a M. smegmatis colony which exh
ibited a high level of ciprofloxacin resistance showed mRNA level over
expression of mtp1. Thus this is the first report in any prokaryote in
dicating differential expression of an ABC transporter in a fluoroquin
olone resistant colony. (C) 1998 Federation of European Biochemical.