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Disrupting the ArcA Regulatory Network Amplifies the Fitness Cost of Tetracycline Resistance in Escherichia coli

Journal Article · · mSystems
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [3];  [3];  [4]
  1. Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle, WA (United States)
  2. Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle, WA (United States); University of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)
  3. Inscripta Inc., Boulder, CO (United States)
  4. Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle, WA (United States); University of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

There is an urgent need for strategies to discover secondary drugs to prevent or disrupt antimicrobial resistance (AMR), which is causing >700,000 deaths annually. Here, we demonstrate that tetracycline-resistant (TetR) Escherichia coli undergoes global transcriptional and metabolic remodeling, including downregulation of tricarboxylic acid cycle and disruption of redox homeostasis, to support consumption of the proton motive force for tetracycline efflux. Using a pooled genome-wide library of single-gene deletion strains, at least 308 genes, including four transcriptional regulators identified by our network analysis, were confirmed as essential for restoring the fitness of TetR E. coli during treatment with tetracycline. Targeted knockout of ArcA, identified by network analysis as a master regulator of this new compensatory physiological state, significantly compromised fitness of TetR E. coli during tetracycline treatment. A drug, sertraline, which generated a similar metabolome profile as the arcA knockout strain, also resensitized TetR E. coli to tetracycline. We discovered that the potentiating effect of sertraline was eliminated upon knocking out arcA, demonstrating that the mechanism of potential synergy was through action of sertraline on the tetracycline-induced ArcA network in the TetR strain. Our findings demonstrate that therapies that target mechanistic drivers of compensatory physiological states could resensitize AMR pathogens to lost antibiotics.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE; National Science Foundation (NSF); National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
2470955
Journal Information:
mSystems, Journal Name: mSystems Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 8; ISSN 2379-5077
Publisher:
American Society for MicrobiologyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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