Bacteria have the ability to adapt to different environmental stimuli, and as they mutate, they can become resistant to drugs that would normally kill or slow their growth. In a recent article published in PLoS Genetics, Dr. Salvador Almagro-Moreno, a microbiologist at UCF College of Medicine, sheds light on the evolutionary origins of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in bacteria. His research on Vibrio cholerae, the bacterium that causes cholera, provides insight into understanding the conditions that lead to infectious agents becoming resistant.
“How AMR occurs in bacterial populations and the pathways leading to these new traits are still poorly understood,” Dr. Almagro-Moreno said. “This poses a major public health threat as antimicrobial resistance is on the rise.”
Dr. Almagro-Moreno’s study focused on genetic variants of a protein called OmpU, which is found in bacterial membranes. Using computational and molecular approaches, his team discovered that several OmpU mutations in the cholera bacteria led to resistance to numerous antimicrobial agents, including antimicrobial peptides that act as defenses in the human gut. The researchers found that other OmpU variants did not provide these properties, making the protein an ideal system for deciphering the specific processes that occur to make some bacteria resistant to antimicrobials.
2023-05-06 21:30:04
Source from phys.org