Infections by carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae are difficult to manage owing to broad antibiotic resistance profiles and because of the inability of clinically used β-lactamase inhibitors to counter the activity of metallo-β-lactamases often harbored by these pathogens. Of particular importance is New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase (NDM)， which requires a di-nuclear zinc ion cluster for catalytic activity. Here， we compare the structures and functions of clinical NDM variants 1-17. The impact of NDM variants on structure is probed by comparing melting temperature and refolding efficiency and also by spectroscopy (UV-visible， H NMR， and EPR) of di-cobalt metalloforms. The impact of NDM variants on function is probed by determining the minimum inhibitory concentrations of various antibiotics， pre-steady-state and steady-state kinetics， inhibitor binding， and zinc dependence of resistance and activity. We observed only minor differences among the fully loaded di-zinc enzymes， but most NDM variants had more distinguishable selective advantages in experiments that mimicked zinc scarcity imposed by typical host defenses. Most NDM variants exhibited improved thermostability (up to ∼10 °C increased ) and improved zinc affinity (up to ∼10-fold decreased ). We also provide first evidence that some NDM variants have evolved the ability to function as mono-zinc enzymes with high catalytic efficiency (NDM-15， ampicillin: / = 5 × 10 m s). These findings reveal the molecular mechanisms that NDM variants have evolved to overcome the combined selective pressures of β-lactam antibiotics and zinc deprivation.