Ben Luisi and Matthew L. Jackson have published a paper in Nature Communications with colleagues from Dundee, Shanghai and Zhengzhou.
The study presents 'the cryo-EM structure of the E. coli EmrAB-TolC assembly, revealing how the pump confers multi-drug resistance to antibiotics. The pump structure pinpoints several key residues that are required for drug export, mutation of which abrogate bacterial resistance to multiple antibiotics. The architecture of the EmrAB-TolC pump supports a one-step drug transport model that directly transport antimicrobial drugs across the entire cell envelope of Gram-negative bacteria, offering additional insights on the mechanisms of antimicrobial resistance.’
It concludes: ‘Understanding the similarities and differences between tripartite multidrug efflux pumps and the basis for their allostery is critical for developing strategies to combat multidrug resistance, a global health challenge.’
Read the paper: ‘A model for drug transport across two membranes of Gram-negative bacteria by an MFS tripartite assembly’.