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A 7.8-kbp fragment of chromosomal DNA from a region controlling multiple antibiotic resistance (Mar) in Escherichia coli has been sequenced. Within the fragment is a potential divergent promoter region including marO, which contains two pairs of direct repeats, suggesting possible operator-regulatory sites. To the left of marO (region I) are one or two transcriptional units with three putative open reading frames (ORFs) encoding 64, 157, and 70 amino acids. To the right (region II) is a transcriptional unit containing three putative ORFs (0RF125/144, 0RF129, and 0RF72). Of six independent Mar mutants, four had mutations within the ORF encoding the first putative protein (0RF125/144) downstream of marO, including three different single-point mutations and an IS2 insertion. One of the other mutations occurred in marO (20-bp duplication), and the other occurred in a site in marO or 0RF144 (a 1-bp change). All six mutations led to increased transcription of the region II transcript. High-copy-number plasmids containing marO and the adjacent 0RF125/144 region from a wild-type source but not from a Mar mutant reduced the antibiotic resistance of a Mar mutant to levels comparable to those of wild-type cells. High-copy-number plasmids containing wild-type marO alone caused an increase in resistance to tetracycline, chloramphenicol, and norfloxacin in a wild-type strain. The nature of the Mar mutations and the results of the complementation studies suggest that 0RF125/144 encodes a repressor (designated MarR) which acts at marO. The second ORF (0RF129), designated marA, would encode a protein, MarA, whose sequence shows strong similarity to those of a family of positive transcriptional regulators. A TnS insertion in marA inactivated the multiresistance phenotype of Mar mutants. The function of 0RF72, designated marB, encoding the third putative protein in the operon, and that of other ORFs detected within the 7.8-kb fragment have not yet been determined.

Since the growth of wild-type Escherichia coli in salicylate results in a multiple antibiotic resistance phenotype similar to that of constitutive mutants (Mar) of the chromosomal mar locus, the effect of salicylate on the expression of the marRAB operon was investigated. The amount of RNA hybridizing with a mar-specific DNA probe was 5 to 10 times higher in wild-type cells grown with sodium salicylate (5.0 mM) than in untreated controls. Untreated Mar mutants had three to five times more mar-specific RNA than wild-type cells did. When a Mar mutant was treated with salicylate, a 30- to 50-fold increase of mar-specific RNA was seen. In wild-type cells bearing a mar promoter-lacZ fusion on the chromosome, salicylate increased beta-galactosidase activity by sixfold. Thus, salicylate induces transcription of the marRAB operon. Other inducers of phenotypic multiple antibiotic resistance, e.g., benzoate, salicyl alcohol, and acetaminophen, but not acetate, also increased transcription from the mar promoter but to a lesser extent than did salicylate. Both in wild-type and mar-deficient strains, growth in salicylate resulted in increased antibiotic resistance, decreased permeation of the outer membrane to cephaloridine, increased micF transcription, and decreased amounts of OmpF. However, the magnitude of these changes was generally greater in wild-type (mar-containing) cells. Thus, salicylate and other compounds can induce transcription of the mar operon and, presumably, give rise to multiple antibiotic resistance via this pathway. However, salicylate can also activate an unidentified, mar-independent pathway(s) which engenders multiple antibiotic resistance.

Chromosomal multiple-antibiotic-resistant (Mar) mutants of Escherichia coli, selected on agar containing low concentrations of tetracycline or chloramphenicol, were 6-to 18-fold less susceptible to the fluoroquinolones than were their wild-type E. coli K-12 or E. coli C parental strains. The frequency of emergence of such mutants was at least 1,000-fold higher than that of those selected by the fluoroquinolone norfloxacin directly. When Mar mutants, but not wild-type cells, were plated on norfloxacin, mutants resistant to high levels of norfloxacin (2 ,ug/ml) appeared at a relatively high (-10-7) frequency. In addition to decreased amounts of OmpF, Mar mutants had other outer membrane protein changes and were four-to eightfold less susceptible to fluoroquinolones than was an ompF::Tn5 mutant lacking only OmpF. Accumulation of [3H]norfloxacin was more than threefold lower in the Mar mutants than in wild-type cells and twofold lower than in the OmpF-deficient derivative. These differences were not attributable to a change in the endogenous active efflux system for norfloxacin in E. coli. Norfloxacin-induced inhibition of DNA synthesis was threefold lower in intact cells of a Mar mutant than in susceptible cells, but this difference was not seen in toluene-permeabilized cells. Insertion of TnS into marA (min 34.05 on the chromosome) led to a return of the wild-type patterns of norfloxacin accumulation, fluoroquinolone and other antimicrobial agent susceptibilities, and outer membrane protein profile, including partial restoration of OmpF. These findings together suggest that marA-dependent fluoroquinolone resistance is linked to decreased cell permeability, only part of which can be accounted for by the reduction in OmpF. Once mutated to marA, cells can achieve high levels of quinolone resistance at a relatively high frequency.

Visual inspection has been the method of analysis most widely employed to evaluate the functional control demonstrated by any given set of intrasubject replication data. To identify the influence of certain graphic characteristics on these evaluative behaviors, 36 "ABAB reversal" figures were constructed. They were sent to 250 reviewers of behavioral journals. Their evaluation of each figure was expressed as a rating on a 100-point scale of "experimental control." Mean interrater agreement was 0.61. In addition to this rating, a verbal description of evaluation criteria was requested. It was also found that graphic characteristics determine evaluative judgments in concert rather than singly. For example, phase mean changes had to be a pattern consistent with the hypothesized effect of the experimental variables, while degrees of mean shift and variability were less important. A description of the following evaluative criteria was presented: (a) topographic characteristics, (b) format of data presentation, (c) intra-experimental, and (d) extra-experimental circumstances.

Mar (multiple antibiotic resistant) mutants of Escherichia coli express chromosomally mediated resistance to a variety of structurally unrelated hydrophilic and hydrophobic antibiotics. Insertion of transposon Tn5 into the marA locus at min 34.05 on the chromosome completely reverses the Mar phenotype (A. M. George and S. B. Levy, J. Bacteriol. 155:531-540, 1983). We found that among changes in the outer membrane of Mar mutants, porin OmpF was greatly reduced, although Mar mutants were more resistant than cells lacking only OmpF. Transduction of the marA region from a Mar strain, but not a wild-type strain, led to loss of OmpF. P1 transduction of marA::Tn5 into a Mar mutant partially restored OmpF levels. Therefore, OmpF reduction required a mutation in the marA region. Mar mutants of an ompF-lacZ operon fusion strain expressed 50 to 75% of the beta-galactosidase activity of the isogenic non-Mar parental strain, while Mar mutants of a protein fusion strain expressed less than 10% of the enzyme activity in the non-Mar strain. These changes were completely reversed by insertion of marA::Tn5. The responsiveness of OmpF-LacZ to osmolarity and temperature changes was similar in Mar and wild-type strains. Although some transcriptional control may have been present, OmpF reduction appeared to occur primarily by a posttranscriptional mechanism. The steady-state levels of ompF mRNA were twofold lower and the mRNA was five times less stable in the Mar mutant than in the wild-type strain. Expression of micF, which lowers ompF mRNA levels, was elevated in Mar strains, as revealed by a micF-lacZ fusion. Studies with strains deleted for the micF locus showed that the marA-dependent reduction of OmpF required an intact micF locus. Our findings suggest that the marA locus directly or indirectly increases micF expression, causing a posttranscriptional decrease in ompF mRNA and reduced amounts of OmpF.

Resistance to multiple antibiotics and certain oxidative stress compounds was conferred by three independently selected mutations (marRI, soxQl, and cfxBl) that mapped to 34 min on the Escherichia coli chromosome. Mutations at this locus can activate the marRAB operon, in which marR encodes a putative repressor of mar transcription and marA encodes a putative transcriptional activator of defense genes against antibiotics and oxidants. Overexpression of the wild-type MarR protein reversed the phenotypes (antibiotic resistance and increased antioxidant enzyme synthesis) of all three mutants. DNA sequence analysis showed that, like marRI, the other two mutations were alterations of marR: a 285-bp deletion in cfxBl and a GC--AT transition at codon 70 (Ala-e-Thr) in soxQI. All three mutations cause increased amounts of mar-specific RNA, which supports the hypothesis that MarR has a repressor function in the expression of the marRAB operon. The level of mar RNA was further induced by tetracycline in both the marRI and soxQI strains but not in the cfxBl deletion mutant. In the cfxBl strain, the level of expression of a truncated RNA, with or without tetracycline exposure, was the same as the fully induced level in the other two mutants. Overproduction of MarR in the cfxBl strain repressed the transcription of the truncated RNA and restored transcriptional inducibility by tetracycline. Thus, induction of the marRAB operon results from the relief of the repression exerted by MarR. The marRAB operon evidently activates both antibiotic resistance and oxidative stress genes.