Amplification of the multidrug resistance gene in some chloroquine-resistant isolates of P. falciparum.
Resistance of Plasmodium falciparum to chloroquine shares features with the multidrug resistance ( MDR) phenotype of mammalian tumor cells. We report here the sequence of pfmdr, the P. falciparum homolog of mdr. We show that pfmdr is amplified in some chloroquine-resistant parasites but not in any of the sensitive isolates examined and that pfmdr transcript levels are increased. The gene is located on chromosome 5, and in one chloroquine-resistant line with an amplified pfmdr gene, chromosome 5 is greatly enlarged. The chromosome heterogeneity is due to varying copy numbers of different-sized pfmdr-containing amplicons. The existence of an mdr gene in P. falciparum and its amplification in some chloroquine-resistant lines greatly adds to the circumstantial evidence that pfmdr mediates chloroquine resistance in these lines.[1]References
- Amplification of the multidrug resistance gene in some chloroquine-resistant isolates of P. falciparum. Foote, S.J., Thompson, J.K., Cowman, A.F., Kemp, D.J. Cell (1989) [Pubmed]
Annotations and hyperlinks in this abstract are from individual authors of WikiGenes or automatically generated by the WikiGenes Data Mining Engine. The abstract is from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.About WikiGenesOpen Access LicencePrivacy PolicyTerms of Useapsburg
