English to Italian Medical Genetics resistenza ad antibiotici e biocidi

Project partners studied the reduced susceptibility to biocides in relation to antibiotic resistance and found no correlation overall. However, they believed this might change as they could detect plasmids in Staphilococcus aureus carrying both the ***cation resistance*** gene qacA and the sh-fabI gene.

Non ho molto contesto, perché se ne parla solo in questa frase... resistenza ai cationi?????

Grazie