Title: Bacterial Multi-drug efflux pumps: more than just pumping antibiotics

University: School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong

Time: 9:00-10:30, December 25, 2013

Venue: Room E201, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Abstract: Multidrug efflux proteins constitute an important determinant of antibiotic and multidrug resistance (MDR) in bacteria which has emerged as a global threat to the current pipeline of effective antibiotics and accordingly to our public health. Although genomic sequencing has revealed the broad distribution of genes encoding efflux pumps which constitute 6-18% of all bacterial transporters, there is a huge gap in understanding how these efflux pumps are utilized by bacteria to yield drug resistance. To address this, my research laboratory undertook global investigations on the expression and physiological functions of all genes annotated as drug efflux pumps in an organism’s genome, attempting to link the activation of resistance determinants with bacterial stress adaptations. In this talk. I will present our studies on the regulation and physiological roles of two important drug efflux systems, MdtEF and CusCFBA, in bacterial stress responses to physiologically and clinically relevant growth conditions. Our studies illustrated that up-regulation of specific multidrug efflux pumps contributes to bacterial stress responses to environmental and host stresses and have implications in the emergence of drug resistance during the dynamic process of bacterial infections in the host.