Manipulation of natural transformation by AbaR-type islands promotes fixation of antibiotic resistance in Acinetobacter baumannii
Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2024
Acinetobacter baumannii poses a significant health threat due to its extensive antibiotic resistance. Antibiotic resistance is conferred by a diverse family of chromosomal islands, but their cost on the bacterial fitness is inconsistent with their high prevalence in the species. We show that the islands consistently disrupt a gene involved in natural transformation, a mechanism proposed to allow genetic diversification but also to cure the genome of genetic parasites. This gene disruption causes specific alterations in natural transformation which, under modeled contexts of antibiotic exposure, favors the propagation of the costly islands in bacterial populations. This illustrates a strategy by which genomic islands manipulate natural transformation to prevent their elimination, thereby driving the prevalence of antibiotic resistance genes.
Recommended citation: R. Tuffet, G. Carvalho, A. Godeux, F. Mazzamurro, E.P.C. Rocha, M. Laaberki, S. Venner,& X. Charpentier, Manipulation of natural transformation by AbaR-type islands promotes fixation of antibiotic resistance in Acinetobacter baumannii, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 121 (39) e2409843121, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2409843121 (2024).
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