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Updated: Dec 20, 2025
In vitro Investigation of the MexAB Efflux Pump From Pseudomonas aeruginosa
Published on: February 17, 2014
Antibiotic Substrate Selectivity of Pseudomonas aeruginosa MexY and MexB Efflux Systems Is Determined by a Goldilocks
Debayan Dey1, Logan G Kavanaugh1,2, Graeme L Conn3,4
1Department of Biochemistry, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Abstract:
Resistance-nodulation-division (RND) efflux pumps are important contributors to bacterial antibiotic resistance. In this study, we combined evolutionary sequence analyses, computational structural modeling, and ligand docking to develop a framework that can explain the known antibiotic substrate selectivity differences between two Pseudomonas aeruginosa RND transporters, MexY and MexB. For efficient efflux, antibiotic substrates must possess a "Goldilocks affinity": binding strong enough to allow interaction with transporter but not so tight as to impede movement through the pump.
