Non-walled spherical Acinetobacter baumannii is an important type of persister upon β-lactam antibiotic treatment.

ABSTRACT: Bacterial persistence is one of the major causes of antibiotic treatment failure and the step stone for antibiotic resistance. However, the mechanism by which persisters arise has not been well understood. Maintaining a dormant state to prevent antibiotics from taking effect is believed to be the fundamental mechanistic basis, and persisters normally maintain an intact cellular structure. Here we examined the morphologies of persisters in Acinetobacter baumannii survived from the treatment by three major classes of antibiotics (i.e. β-lactam, aminoglycoside, and fluoroquinolone) with microcopy and found that a fraction of enlarged spherical bacteria constitutes a major sub-population of bacterial survivors from β-lactam antibiotic treatment, whereas survivors from the

SUBMITTER: Zou J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7448848 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature