Vancomycin Resistance Genes in Various Organisms- An Insilico Study

Vancomycin, a glycopeptide antibiotic is widely used to treat many serious infections caused bygram positive bacteria particularly, methicillin resistant Enterococci and Staphyllococcus sp.Emergence of commonly acquired resistance in bacterial pathogens has lead to clinicalcomplications and threat to human health. The resistance in these organisms is conferred byseveral vancomycin resistance genes (Van) like VanA, VanB, VanD, VanC and VanM.Knowledge of presence of Van genes in various organisms was felt necessary prior to molecularinvestigation. Therefore, in this insilico study screening was carried out for presence of Van genelike sequences using the DNA sequence information available in biological databases. Resultsindicated that many pathogenic and non-pathogenic bacteria, fungal, viral and protozoanpathogens, other organisms like fishes, mammals possess Van like sequences. The presentfindings provide first hand information on extent of presence of Van sequences in manyorganisms and their phylogenetic relationship with each other. Further investigation on thesignificance of these genes is emphasized using molecular and bioinformatics tools to helpminimize acquired resistance in antibiotics.