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Modes and modulations of antibiotic resistance gene expression.

ABSTRACT: Since antibiotic resistance usually affords a gain of function, there is an associated biological cost resulting in a loss of fitness of the bacterial host. Considering that antibiotic resistance is most often only transiently advantageous to bacteria, an efficient and elegant way for them to escape the lethal action of drugs is the alteration of resistance gene expression. It appears that expression of bacterial resistance to antibiotics is frequently regulated, which indicates that modulation of gene expression probably reflects a good compromise between energy saving and adjustment to a rapidly evolving environment. Modulation of gene expression can occur at the transcriptional or translational level following mutations or the movement of mobile genetic elements and may involve induction by the antibiotic. In the latter case, the antibiotic can have a triple activity: as an antibacterial agent, as an inducer of resistance to itself, and as an inducer of the dissemination of resistance determinants. We will review certain mechanisms, all reversible, that bacteria have elaborated to achieve antibiotic resistance by the fine-tuning of the expression of genetic information.

SUBMITTER: Depardieu F

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1797629 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Modes and modulations of antibiotic resistance gene expression.

Depardieu Florence F Podglajen Isabelle I Leclercq Roland R Collatz Ekkehard E Courvalin Patrice P

Clinical microbiology reviews 20070101 1

Since antibiotic resistance usually affords a gain of function, there is an associated biological cost resulting in a loss of fitness of the bacterial host. Considering that antibiotic resistance is most often only transiently advantageous to bacteria, an efficient and elegant way for them to escape the lethal action of drugs is the alteration of resistance gene expression. It appears that expression of bacterial resistance to antibiotics is frequently regulated, which indicates that modulation ...[more]

PMID: 17223624

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Dataset Information

Modes and modulations of antibiotic resistance gene expression.

Publications

Modes and modulations of antibiotic resistance gene expression.

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