time-lapse-epifluorescence-microscopy-imaging-pseudomonas-aeruginosa

Time-Lapse Epifluorescence Microscopy Imaging of <i>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</i> and <i>Staphylococcus aureus</i> Heterogeneous Phenotypes

Antibiotic persistence is a phenomenon in which a small number of bacterial cells in a genetically susceptible population survive antibiotic treatment ...

Uconn Health

The bacterial pathogen  is responsible for a variety of chronic human infections. Even in the absence of identifiable resistance mutations, this pathogen can tolerate lethal antibiotic doses through phenotypic strategies like biofilm formation and metabolic quiescence. In this study, we determined that  maintains greater metabolic activity in the stationary phase compared to the model organism, , which has traditionally been used to study fluoroquinolone antibiotic tolerance. We demonstrate that hallmarks of  fluoroquinolone tolerance are not conserved in , including the timing of cell death and necessity of the SOS DNA damage response for survival. The heightened sensitivity of stationary-phase  to fluoroquinolones is attributed to maintained transcriptional and reductase activity. Our data suggest that perturbations that suppress transcription and respiration in  may actually protect the pathogen against this important class of antibiotics.

Yi I. Wu

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