Tolerance of Escherichia coli to fluoroquinolone antibiotics depends on specific components of the SOS response pathway.

ABSTRACT: Bacteria exposed to bactericidal fluoroquinolone (FQ) antibiotics can survive without becoming genetically resistant. Survival of these phenotypically resistant cells, commonly called "persisters," depends on the SOS gene network. We have examined mutants in all known SOS-regulated genes to identify functions essential for tolerance in Escherichia coli. The absence of DinG and UvrD helicases and the Holliday junction processing enzymes RuvA and RuvB leads to a decrease in survival. Analysis of the respective mutants indicates that, in addition to repair of double-strand breaks, tolerance depends on the repair of collapsed replication forks and stalled transcription complexes. Mutation in recF results in increased survival, which identifies RecAF recombination as a poisoning mechanism not p

SUBMITTER: Theodore A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3832272 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature