Linking system-wide impacts of RNA polymerase mutations to the fitness cost of rifampin resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

ABSTRACT:

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Fitness costs play a key role in the evolutionary dynamics of antibiotic resistance in bacteria by generating selection against resistance in the absence of antibiotics. Although the genetic basis of antibiotic resistance is well understood, the precise molecular mechanisms linking the genetic basis of resistance to its fitness cost remain poorly characterized. Here, we examine how the system-wide impacts of mutations in the RNA polymerase (RNAP) gene rpoB shape the fitness cost of rifampin resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Rifampin resistance mutations reduce transcriptional efficiency, and this explains 76% of the variation in fitness among rpoB mutants. The pleiotropic consequence of rpoB mutations is that mutants show altered relative transcript levels of essenti

SUBMITTER: Qi Q 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4324240 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature