Center for Biofilm Engineering
Abstract:
"A Genetic Basis for Pseudomonas aeruginosa Biofilm Antibiotic Resistance"
03-032 Biofilms are surface-attached microbial communities with
characteristic architecture and phenotypic and biochemical properties distinct
from their free-swimming, planktonic counterparts. One of the best-known of
these biofilm-specific properties is the development of antibiotic resistance
that can be up to 1,000-fold greater than planktonic cells. We report a genetic
determinant of this high-level resistance in the Gram-negative opportunistic
pathogen, Pseudomonas aeruginosa. We have identified a mutant of P. aeruginosa
that, while still capable of forming biofilms with the characteristic P. aeruginosa architecture, does not develop high-level biofilm-specific resistance
to three different classes of antibiotics. The locus identified in our screen,
ndvB, is required for the synthesis of periplasmic glucans. Our discovery that
these periplasmic glucans interact physically with tobramycin suggests that
these glucose polymers may prevent antibiotics from reaching their sites of
action by sequestering these antimicrobial agents in the periplasm. Our results
indicate that biofilms themselves are not simply a diffusion barrier to these
antibiotics, but rather that bacteria within these microbial communities employ
distinct mechanisms to resist the action of antimicrobial agents.
Mah, T.-F., B. Pitts, B. Pellock, G.C. Walker, P.S. Stewart and G.A. O'Toole, "A
Genetic Basis for Pseudomonas aeruginosa Biofilm Antibiotic Resistance," Nature,
426:306-310
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