Enterococci belonging to various species resistant to vancomycin and related cyclic glycopeptide antibiotics have been isolated from hospitalized patients in France, the UK and the USA. All such strains examined display inducible synthesis of a membrane protein associated with resistance. The mechanism by which the membrane protein acts has not been definitively established, but it may block the access of the antibiotic to its peptidoglycan target. That the protein could be a bypass enzyme has not been ruled out. Transfer of glycopeptide resistance by conjugation to either Enterococcus faecium or Enterococcus faecalis and by transformation of Streptococcus sanguis Challis has been reported. The structural and regulatory genes encoding this resistance can be localized on plasmid and, apparently, chromosomal DNA. The plasmids encoding this resistance appear to differ from each other and have variable host ranges, but share at least some DNA sequence homology.