Multidrug resistance operon emrAB contributes for chromate and ampicillin co-resistance in a Staphylococcus strain isolated from refinery polluted river bank

EmrAB operon is known for multidrug resistance in bacteria and yet has not been reported related to heavy metal resistance or antibiotics/heavy metal co-resistance. Strain Staphylococcus aureus LZ-01 which was isolated from industrial wastewater discharging site can co-resist to 6 mM Cr(VI) and 0.75 mg/ml ampicillin. Transcriptome data showed that an emrAB operon was upregulated (1.29-folds for emrA, 2.14-folds for emrB) under 0.4 mM Cr(VI) treatment. Quantitative PCR results revealed that this operon was upregulated (1.60-folds for emrA, 2.34-folds for emrB) after 0.20 mg/ml ampicillin treatment. Mutant strain with emrA gene knockout resulted in a 0.83-folds decrease in chromate resistance, and a 0.80-folds decrease in ampicillin resistance; while emrB knockout strain resulted in a 0.33-folds decrease in chromate resistance, and a 0.60-folds decrease in ampicillin resistance. The complemented strains of both deletion mutants basically restored their resistant performance. The presence of 0.50 mM Cr(VI) induced an elevation in ampicillin resistance from 0.50 to 2.50 mg/ml in the strain LZ-01, similarly, its Cr(VI) resistance was also found to be elevated from 6 to 10 mM by 0.15 mg/ml ampicillin induction. The induction effect could be eliminated by deletion of emrA or emrB. Our results demonstrated that the chromosomal emrAB operon in Staphylococcus aureus LZ-01 was a new type of multidrug resistance system, which conferred both ampicillin and chromate resistance to host cells inhabiting polluted environments. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40064-016-3253-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.