SugE, a new member of the SMR family of transporters, contributes to antimicrobial resistance in Enterobacter cloacae.

We cloned a gene, sugE, from the chromosome of Enterobacter cloacae ATCC 13047. Analysis of the susceptibilities of the sugE-containing strain (Escherichia coli KAM32/pSUGE28) and sugE-deficient E. cloacae (EcΔsugE) showed that SugE confers resistance to cetyltrimethylammonium bromide, cetylpyridinium chloride, tetraphenylphosphonium, benzalkonium chloride, ethidium bromide, and sodium dodecyl sulfate. We also investigated expression of sugE. We confirm here that SugE from E. cloacae is an SMR family transporter as determined by observing its energy-dependent drug efflux activity.