Gamblers: An Antibiotic-Induced Evolvable Cell Subpopulation Differentiated by Reactive-Oxygen-Induced General Stress Response.

ABSTRACT: Antibiotics can induce mutations that cause antibiotic resistance. Yet, despite their importance, mechanisms of antibiotic-promoted mutagenesis remain elusive. We report that the fluoroquinolone antibiotic ciprofloxacin (cipro) induces mutations by triggering transient differentiation of a mutant-generating cell subpopulation, using reactive oxygen species (ROS). Cipro-induced DNA breaks activate the Escherichia coli SOS DNA-damage response and error-prone DNA polymerases in all cells. However, mutagenesis is limited to a cell subpopulation in which electron transfer together with SOS induce ROS, which activate the sigma-S (σ^S) general-stress response, which allows mutagenic DNA-break repair. When sorted, this small σ^S-response-"on" subpopulation produces most antibio

SUBMITTER: Pribis JP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6553487 | biostudies-literature | 2019 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature