Related Experiment Video
Updated: Nov 8, 2025

Implementation of In Vitro Drug Resistance Assays: Maximizing the Potential for Uncovering Clinically Relevant Resistance Mechanisms
Published on: December 9, 2015
Structural Insights into Transporter-Mediated Drug Resistance in Infectious Diseases
Jonathan Kim1, Rosemary J Cater1, Brendon C Choy1
1Department of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY 10032, USA.
Abstract:
Infectious diseases present a major threat to public health globally. Pathogens can acquire resistance to anti-infectious agents via several means including transporter-mediated efflux. Typically, multidrug transporters feature spacious, dynamic, and chemically malleable binding sites to aid in the recognition and transport of chemically diverse substrates across cell membranes. Here, we discuss recent structural investigations of multidrug transporters involved in resistance to infectious diseases that belong to the ATP-binding cassette (ABC) superfamily, the major facilitator superfamily (MFS), the drug/metabolite transporter (DMT) superfamily, the multidrug and toxic compound extrusion (MATE) family, the small multidrug resistance (SMR) family, and the resistance-nodulation-division (RND) superfamily. These structural insights provide invaluable information for understanding and combatting multidrug resistance.
Related Concept Videos
Carrier-Mediated Transport
Active transport involves two types of membrane-spanning transporters: uptake and efflux. Uptake transporters are expressed in the small...
The Significance of Membrane Transport
Transporters facilitate either an active or passive movement of solutes. They can allow a single-molecule transport down its...
Cellular Membranes and Drug Transport
Phospholipids arrange themselves into a bilayer, with hydrophilic heads oriented outward and hydrophobic tails facing inward.
Development of Antibiotic Resistance
Facilitated Diffusion
In this process, substrates such as organic compounds and ions interact with a transporter on one side, triggering conformational changes in proteins that enable...
Membrane Transporters
Transporters are mainly composed of alpha-helices, built from bundles of ten or more helices traversing the plasma membrane. The solute-binding sites are located midway, where some of the helices are broken or distorted, making space for the binding site through...

