AadT, a new weapon inAcinetobacter’sfight against antibiotics

Abstract

AbstractA novel multidrug efflux pump, AadT from the Drug:H+antiporter 2 family, was discovered inAcinetobactermultidrug resistance plasmids. Here, we profiled the antimicrobial resistance potential and examined the distribution of this gene. Putative homologs of this efflux pump were encoded in manyAcinetobacterspecies and other Gram-negative species, and were genetically associated with novel variants ofadeAB(C), which encodes a major tripartite efflux pump inAcinetobacter. The AadT pump conferred decreased susceptibility to at least eight diverse antimicrobials, including antibiotics erythromycin, tetracycline; biocides chlorhexidine; and dyes ethidium bromide and DAPI. These results show that AadT is a new determinant in theAcinetobacterresistance arsenal and may cooperate with variants of AdeAB(C).