The adaptive abilities of bacteria to survive antibiotic treatments have long been noted in the scientific community. More importantly the prevalence of this rapid acquirement of antibiotic resistance is such that it occurs not so much by chance, but by an adaptive mechanism, but how does this happen?
The SOS response is a transcriptional response to environmental stress causing changes in the regulation of numerous genes leading to mutations in the genome. These mutations are suspected to be the possible origin of the adaptive mutations involved in antibiotic resistance.
A recent paper by Cirz, Ryan T. et. al used DNA micro arrays to study the genetic effects of the SOS response in Pseudomonas aeruginosa in the presence of the antibiotic Ciprofloxacin and the possible effects of inhibition of LexA cleavage on antibiotic resistance. P.aeruginosa infections are well known for being hard to eradicate when using antibiotic therapy due to evolution of antibiotic resistance. The results of the paper indicate that the SOS response during antibiotic treatments allows the organism to gain mutations with the potential of obtaining resistance. Although the SOS response in P.aeruginosa is not exactly the same as in other bacteria such as Escherichia coli it has the still allows the organism time to adapt.
References
Cirz, R. T., O'Neill, B. M., Hammond, J. A., Head, S. R., Romesberg, F. E. (2006). Defining the Pseudomonas aeruginosa SOS Response and Its Role in the Global Response to the Antibiotic Ciprofloxacin. Journal of Bacteriology, 188, 7101-7110Cirz, R. T., Chin, J. K., Andes, D. R., de Crecy-Lagard, V., Craig, W. A., Romesberg, F. E. (2005). Inhibition of Mutation and Combating the Evolution of Antibiotic Resistance. PLoS Biology, 3, 1024-1033
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