Pilus Production in Acinetobacter baumannii Is Growth Phase Dependent and Essential for Natural Transformation.

ABSTRACT: Acinetobacter baumannii is a severe threat to human health as a frequently multidrug-resistant hospital-acquired pathogen. Part of the danger from this bacterium comes from its genome plasticity and ability to evolve quickly by taking up and recombining external DNA into its own genome in a process called natural competence for transformation. This mode of horizontal gene transfer is one of the major ways that bacteria can acquire new antimicrobial resistances and toxic traits. Because these processes in A. baumannii are not well studied, we herein characterized new aspects of natural transformability in this species that include the species' competence window. We uncovered a strong correlation with a growth phase-dependent synthesis of a type IV pilus (TFP), which constitutes the central

SUBMITTER: Vesel N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8088505 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature