Fluoroquinolone Persistence in Requires DNA Repair despite Differing between Starving Populations.

Publication Year
2022

Type

Journal Article
Abstract

When faced with nutritional deprivation, bacteria undergo a range of metabolic, regulatory, and biosynthetic changes. Those adjustments, which can be specific or independent of the missing nutrient, often alter bacterial tolerance to antibiotics. Here, using fluoroquinolones, we quantified persister levels in cultures experiencing starvation from a lack of carbon (C), nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P), or magnesium (Mg). Interestingly, persister levels varied significantly based on the type of starvation as well as fluoroquinolone used with N-starved populations exhibiting the highest persistence to levofloxacin, and P-starved populations exhibiting the highest persistence to moxifloxacin. However, regardless of the type of starvation or fluoroquinolone used, DNA repair was required by persisters, with ∆ and ∆ uniformly exhibiting the lowest persistence of the mutants assayed. These results suggest that while the type of starvation and fluoroquinolone will modulate the level of persistence, the importance of homologous recombination is consistently observed, which provides further support for efforts to target homologous recombination for anti-persister purposes.

Journal
Microorganisms
Volume
10
Issue
2
Date Published
2022 Jan 26
ISSN Number
2076-2607
Alternate Journal
Microorganisms
PMCID
PMC8877308
PMID
35208744