“…One of the major resistance mechanisms is alteration of the subunit structure of DNA gyrase (1,5,10,12,14,16,20,22,27,28,30,31), and another is decreased permeability through the outer membrane from a reduced number of porins (3, 4, 6-8, 11, 13-15). In E. coli, fluoroquinolones are thought to cross the outer membrane primarily through the OmpF porin; this has been demonstrated previously with defined porin-deficient strains (4,6,13,26). Moreover, the lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-deficient (rough) mutants were more susceptible to hydrophobic quinolones than was the wild-type strain, suggesting that the passage of quinolones through the outer membrane is not limited to porins (13).…”