Influence of Transcriptional Activator RamA on Expression of Multidrug Efflux Pump AcrAB and Tigecycline Susceptibility in Klebsiella pneumoniae

Tigecycline is an expanded broad-spectrum antibacterial agent that is active against many clinically relevant species of bacterial pathogens, including Klebsiella pneumoniae. The majority of K. pneumoniae isolates are fully susceptible to tigecycline; however, a few strains that have decreased susceptibility have been isolated. One isolate, G340 (for which the tigecycline MIC is 4 microg/ml and which displays a multidrug resistance MDR phenotype), was selected for analysis of the mechanism for this decreased susceptibility by use of transposon mutagenesis with IS903phikan. A tigecycline-susceptible mutant of G340, GC7535, was obtained (tigecycline MIC, 0.25 microg/ml). Analysis of the transposon insertion mapped it to ramA, a gene that was previously identified to be involved in MDR in K. pneumoniae. For GC7535, the disruption of ramA led to a 16-fold decrease in the MIC of tigecycline and also a suppression of MDR. Trans-complementation with plasmid-borne ramA restored the original parental phenotype of decreased susceptibility to tigecycline. Northern blot analysis revealed a constitutive overexpression of ramA that correlated with an increased expression of the AcrAB transporter in G340 compared to that in tigecycline-susceptible strains. Laboratory mutants of K. pneumoniae with decreased susceptibility to tigecycline could be selected at a frequency of approximately 4 x 10(-8). These results suggest that ramA is associated with decreased tigecycline susceptibility in K. pneumoniae due to its role in the expression of the AcrAB multidrug efflux pump.