Antibiotic tolerance in Escherichia coli: functional characterisation and single-cell analysis of stochastic gene expression of a new persistence gene.

Persistence is the phenomenon in which a fraction of an isogenic bacterial population is insensitive to extremely high antibiotics concentrations. In contrast to resistant bacteria, persisters will give rise to a population with the same antibiotics usceptibility as the original population upon inoculation in fresh medium. This persister fraction is held responsible for the resurging of infections after treatment with antibiotics. Even though the phenomenon was first described over 60 years ago, the cause of persistence as well as the precise physiological nature of these cells remains unclear. This has prevented the development of therapies specifically targeting persisters. We wish to identify proteins affecting persistence using a combined molecular and microscopic analysis.

Keywords:Stochastic gene expression, Escherichia coli, Antibiotic tolerance, Persistence

Disciplines:Microbiology, Systems biology, Laboratory medicine, Biochemistry and metabolism, Medical biochemistry and metabolism, Biomaterials engineering, Biological system engineering, Biomechanical engineering, Other (bio)medical engineering, Environmental engineering and biotechnology, Industrial biotechnology, Other biotechnology, bio-engineering and biosystem engineering