Recruitment of genes and enzymes conferring resistance to the nonnatural toxin bromoacetate.

ABSTRACT: Microbial niches contain toxic chemicals capable of forcing organisms into periods of intense natural selection to afford survival. Elucidating the mechanisms by which microbes evade environmental threats has direct relevance for understanding and combating the rise of antibiotic resistance. In this study we used a toxic small-molecule, bromoacetate, to model the selective pressures imposed by antibiotics and anthropogenic toxins. We report the results of genetic selection experiments that identify nine genes from Escherichia coli whose overexpression affords survival in the presence of a normally lethal concentration of bromoacetate. Eight of these genes encode putative transporters or transmembrane proteins, while one encodes the essential peptidoglycan biosynthetic enzyme, UDP-N-acetylg

SUBMITTER: Desai KK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2964223 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature