[Advances in the study of nisin resistance--a review]

Nisin, a lantibiotic produced by some species of Lactococcus lactis, has broad antibacterial spectrum against Gram-positive bacteria species, especially those with close phylogenetic relationship to the nisin producing strain. The broad use of nisin did not lead to widespread resistance. However, some non-nisin producing bacteria could develop certain mechanisms of resistance against nisin when growing under laboratory or nature selection pressure. Nisin resistance mainly involved two strategies, namely, the non-specific physiological isolation mechanism (by the change of cell wall or membrane structure and composition) and the specific protease-mediated mechanism. This review introduced the advances in the study of nisin resistance mechanism.