A NiCoT family metal transporter of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Rv2856/NicT) behaves as a drug efflux pump that facilitates cross-resistance to antibiotics.

Metals often act as a facilitator in the proliferation and persistence of antibiotic resistance. Efflux pumps play key roles in the co-selection of metal and antibiotic resistance. Here, we report the ability of a putative nickel/cobalt transporter (NiCoT family), Rv2856 or NicT of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), to transport metal and antibiotics and identified some key amino acid residues that are important for its function. Ectopic expression of NicT in Escherichia coli CS109 resulted in the increase of intracellular nickel uptake. Additionally, enhanced tolerance towards several antibiotics (norfloxacin, sparfloxacin, ofloxacin, gentamicin, nalidixic acid and isoniazid) was observed with NicT overexpression in E. coli and Mycobacterium smegmatis. A comparatively lower intracellular accumulation of norfloxacin upon NicT overexpression than that of the cells without NicT indicated the involvement of NicT in an active efflux process. Although expression of NicT did not alter the sensitivity towards kanamycin, doxycycline, tetracycline, apramycin, neomycin and ethambutol, the presence of a sub-inhibitory dose of Ni2+ resulted in the manifestation of low-level tolerance towards these drugs. Further, substitution of four residues (H77I, D82I, H83L and D227I) in the conserved regions of NicT by isoleucine and leucine resulted in reduced to nearly complete loss of the transport function for both metals and antimicrobials. Therefore, the study suggests that nickel transporter Rv2856/NicT may actively export different drugs and the presence of nickel might drive the cross-resistance to some of the antibiotics.