JAC Advance Access originally published online on November 13, 2008
Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy 2009 63(2):405-406; doi:10.1093/jac/dkn474
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
Research letters |
dfrA27, a new integron-associated trimethoprim resistance gene from Escherichia coli


Department of Laboratory Medicine, Huashan Hospital, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, 12 Central Urumqi Road, Shanghai, China
* Corresponding author. Tel/Fax: +86-21-62498118; E-mail: yuanlu@hsh.stn.sh.cn
Keywords: dihydrofolate reductase , mobile genetic elements , gene cassettes
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Sir,
Trimethoprim is a synthetic antibiotic. With its structure similar to that of folic acid, trimethoprim is a competitive inhibitor of dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR).1 Owing to its high concentration in urine that is sufficient to inhibit most urinary pathogens, trimethoprim alone or combined with sulphonamides has been widely used in the treatment of urinary tract infections.2 Bacterial resistance to trimethoprim can be inherent or acquired. The most common mechanism involves expressing trimethoprim insensitive variants of DHFR within mobile genetic elements, such as plasmids, transposons and integrons.1 Up to now, more than 22 different trimethoprim resistance dfrA genes have been reported and
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