About this Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology article
Extreme Antibiotic Persistence via Heterogeneity-Generating Mutations Targeting Translation by Khare, Anupama; Tavazoie, Saeed; Bucci, Vanni is a Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology article available to read on EtoBox.
Bacterial persistence is a fascinating phenomenon in which a small subpopulation of bacteria becomes phenotypically tolerant to lethal antibiotic exposure. There is growing evidence that populations of bacteria in chronic clinical infections develop a hyperpersistent phenotype, enabling a substantially larger subpopulation to survive repeated antibiotic treatment. The mechanisms of persistence and modes of increasing persistence rates remain largely unknown. Here, we utilized experimental evolution to select for Escherichia coli mutants that have more than a thousandfold increase in persistence rates. We discovered that a variety of individual mutations to translation-related processes are causally involved. Furthermore, we found that these mutations lead to population heterogeneity in the expression of specific genes. We show that this can be used to isolate populations in which the majority of bacteria are persisters, thereby enabling systems-level characterization of this fascinating and clinically significant microbial phenomenon.
It is typically read by researchers, students, and practitioners in Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology.
- Author
- Khare, Anupama; Tavazoie, Saeed; Bucci, Vanni
- Publisher
- American Society for Microbiology; Washington DC: American Society for Microbiology, [2016]- (ISSN 2379-5077)
- Published
- 2020
- Language
- EN
- Field
- Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology (Life Sciences)