Researchers study how different forms of metabolic energy are coupled to drug extrusion by an ATP-binding cassette transporter.

The expression of polyspecific membrane transporters is one important mechanism by which cells can obtain resistance to structurally different antibiotics and cytotoxic agents. These transporters reduce intracellular drug concentrations to subtoxic levels by mediating drug efflux across the cell envelope. The major facilitator superfamily multidrug transporter LmrP from Lactococcus lactis catalyses drug efflux in a membrane potential and chemical proton gradient-dependent fashion. To enable the interaction with protons and cationic substrates, LmrP contains catalytic carboxyl residues on the surface of a large interior chamber that is formed by transmembrane helices. These residues colocalise together with polar and aromatic residues, and are predicted to be present in two clusters. To investigate the functional role of the catalytic carboxylates, we generated mutant proteins catalysing membrane potential-independent dye efflux by removing one of the carboxyl residues in Cluster 1. We then relocated this carboxyl residue to six positions on the surface of the interior chamber, and tested for restoration of wildtype energetics. The reinsertion at positions towards Cluster 2 reinstated the membrane potential dependence of dye efflux. Our data uncover a remarkable plasticity in proton interactions in LmrP, which is a consequence of the flexibility in the location of key residues that are responsible for proton/multidrug antiport.The ability of microbes to develop resistance to cytotoxic drugs, and to adapt rapidly to changes in the exposure to these compounds is an extremely important medical problem 1 . Drug resistance can be specific for a single drug or class of drugs, or occur simultaneously for a wide variety of toxic compounds that are structurally and functionally unrelated. The latter phenomenon is called multidrug resistance, and is recognised as an important mechanism of bacterial resistance to valuable clinical antibiotics. In many cases, the development of multidrug resistance is due to the enhanced expression levels of drug pumps in the cell 2 . These pumps mediate the extrusion of antimicrobials across the cell envelope, away from intracellular targets. Enzyme-ligand interactions are usually based on very specific interactions that allow discrimination between enantiomers of the same ligand. The ability of multidrug transporters to recognise a broad spectrum of structurally unrelated drugs is intriguing.Multidrug transporters have been reinvented on multiple occasions in the course of evolution, and are found in six different protein families: the ATP-binding cassette (ABC) superfamily, resistance-nodulation-cell division (RND) family, multiple antibiotics and toxin extrusion (MATE) family, small multidrug resistance (SMR) family, proteobacterial antimicrobial compound efflux (PACE) family, and major facilitator superfamily (MFS) 3,4 . It is generally accepted that members of the ABC family couple drug efflux to ATP binding and hydrolysis, whereas the members of the other 5 families operate by a secon...

Multidrug and toxic compound extrusion (MATE) transport proteins confer multidrug resistance on pathogenic microorganisms and affect pharmacokinetics in mammals. Our understanding of how MATE transporters work, has mostly relied on protein structures and MD simulations. However, the energetics of drug transport has not been studied in detail. Many MATE transporters utilise the electrochemical H+ or Na+ gradient to drive substrate efflux, but NorM-VC from Vibrio cholerae can utilise both forms of metabolic energy. To dissect the localisation and organisation of H+ and Na+ translocation pathways in NorM-VC we engineered chimaeric proteins in which the N-lobe of H+-coupled NorM-PS from Pseudomonas stutzeri is fused to the C-lobe of NorM-VC, and vice versa. Our findings in drug binding and transport experiments with chimaeric, mutant and wildtype transporters highlight the versatile nature of energy coupling in NorM-VC, which enables adaptation to fluctuating salinity levels in the natural habitat of V. cholerae.