Molecular characterization of the ldmdr1 multidrug resistance gene from Leishmania donovani

The ldmdr1 gene that confers resistance to multiple structurally dissimilar hydrophobic drugs in Leishmania donovani has been isolated within a 5.4-kb XmaI fragment from a genomic library of L. donovani DNA and its protein coding region sequenced. The longest open reading frame within ldmdr1 encodes a 146.5-kDa protein of 1341 amino acids, designated LDMDR1. The primary structure and predicted membrane topology of LDMDR1 indicates that it is a member of the P-glycoprotein superfamily with the greatest homology to the mammalian multidrug resistance P-glycoproteins. A 2.3-kb SalI fragment derived from a second ldmdr1 allele was also cloned from the L. donovani library. Nucleotide sequence analysis of a portion of the SalI insert revealed 5 single base differences from its counterpart within the 5.4-kb XmaI fragment, one of which created a PvuI restriction site polymorphism. Southern blots of PvuI-digested DNA divulged that the amplified ldmdr1 gene copies in a multidrug-resistant L. donovani strain were all derived from the single ldmdr1 allele whose protein coding segment was sequenced in its entirety.