Effect of membrane fusion protein AdeT1 on the antimicrobial resistance of Escherichia coli

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 10; no. 1; pp. 20464 - 13
• Main Authors: Barlow, Victoria L., Lai, Shu-Jung, Chen, Chia-Yu, Tsai, Cheng-Han, Wu, Shih-Hsiung, Tsai, Yu-Hsuan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 24.11.2020; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 631/326/22/1434; 631/45/612; 631/92/612; 639/638/45/612; 639/638/92/612; Acinetobacter baumannii - drug effects; Acinetobacter baumannii - genetics; Acinetobacter baumannii - growth & development; Antibiotic resistance; Antibiotics; Antimicrobial agents; Antimicrobial resistance; Bacterial Proteins - genetics; Bacterial Proteins - metabolism; Drug resistance; Drug Resistance, Multiple, Bacterial; E coli; Erythromycin; Erythromycin - pharmacology; Escherichia coli; Escherichia coli - drug effects; Escherichia coli - genetics; Escherichia coli - growth & development; Fusion protein; Humanities and Social Sciences; Lysine - metabolism; Membrane Fusion; Membrane proteins; Membrane Proteins - genetics; Membrane Proteins - metabolism; Microbial Sensitivity Tests; Minimum inhibitory concentration; multidisciplinary; Multidrug resistance; Nodulation; Pathogens; Recombinant Proteins - metabolism; Science; Science (multidisciplinary)
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-77339-w

Acinetobacter baumannii is a prevalent pathogen that can rapidly acquire resistance to antibiotics. Indeed, multidrug-resistant A. baumannii is a major cause of hospital-acquired infections and has been recognised by the World Health Organization as one of the most threatening bacteria to our society. Resistance-nodulation-division (RND) type multidrug efflux pumps have been demonstrated to convey antibiotic resistance to a wide range of pathogens and are the primary resistance mechanism employed by A. baumannii . A component of an RND pump in A. baumannii, AdeT1, was previously demonstrated to enhance the antimicrobial resistance of Escherichia coli . Here, we report the results of experiments which demonstrate that wild-type AdeT1 does not confer antimicrobial resistance in E. coli , highlighting the importance of verifying protein production when determining minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) especially by broth dilution. Nevertheless, using an agar-based MIC assay, we found that propionylation of Lys280 on AdeT1 renders E. coli cells more resistant to erythromycin.