Identification and characterization of type II toxin-antitoxin systems in the opportunistic pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii.

ABSTRACT: Acinetobacter baumannii is an opportunistic pathogen that causes nosocomial infections. Due to the ability to persist in the clinical environment and rapidly acquire antibiotic resistance, multidrug-resistant A. baumannii clones have spread in medical units in many countries in the last decade. The molecular basis of the emergence and spread of the successful multidrug-resistant A. baumannii clones is not understood. Bacterial toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems are abundant genetic loci harbored in low-copy-number plasmids and chromosomes and have been proposed to fulfill numerous functions, from plasmid stabilization to regulation of growth and death under stress conditions. In this study, we have performed a thorough bioinformatic search for type II TA systems in genomes of A. baumannii strain

SUBMITTER: Jurenaite M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3697630 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature