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A DNA damage‐inducible response in Acinetobacter baumannii
Author(s) -
MacGuire Ashley Erin
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.27.1_supplement.550.19
Subject(s) - acinetobacter baumannii , biology , mutagenesis , gene , dna damage , genetics , dna , genome , population , microbiology and biotechnology , mutation , bacteria , pseudomonas aeruginosa , medicine , environmental health
Acinetobacter baumannii favors chromosomal insertions and rearrangements, lending to its ability to gain antibiotic resistance and succeed as a pathogen. This tendency toward genomic plasticity contradicts efforts of other organisms to preserve their genomes. In turn, it was thought that A. baumannii was missing a DNA damage‐inducible response, which would play a role in maintenance of chromosomal integrity. We sought to characterize such a response in A. baumannii , using fluorescent reporter strains to examine gene induction. We found A. baumannii not only to possess a DNA damage‐inducible system, but genes regulated under this system are induced under bistable promoters. This bistable induction of genes after DNA damage is not seen in other organisms such as Escherichia coli and could allow A. baumannii to take risks, allowing heightened recombination and mutagenesis in a portion of the population, without risking the whole cell line. The control of A. baumannii outbreaks has become a serious problem in hospitals, as multidrug resistance rises. Further insight into the workings of this bistable system will be critical in the growing search for therapies against this increasingly adaptive bacterium.