MICROBIAL MULTIDRUG-RESISTANCE

Multiresistance plasmids and transposons, the integrons, the co-amplif ication of several resistance genes or finally the accumulation of ind ependent mutations can lead to microorganisms resistant to multiple dr ugs. On the other hand multidrug resistance is due to an efflux pump c onferring resistance to unrelated drugs. These microbial efflux pumps are belonging to various transporter families and are often encoded in microbial genomes. There is mounting evidence that these efflux syste ms are responsible for clinical multidrug resistance in bacteria, yeas ts and parasites. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.