Directed mutagenesis of Mycobacterium smegmatis 16S rRNA to reconstruct the in vivo evolution of aminoglycoside resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis

作者：Shcherbakov Dmitri; Akbergenov Rashid; Matt Tanja; Sander Peter; Andersson Dan I; Boettger Erik C

来源：Molecular Microbiology, 2010, 77(4): 830-840.

DOI：10.1111/j.1365-2958.2010.07218.x

P>Drug resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a global problem, with major consequences for treatment and public health systems. As the emergence and spread of drug-resistant tuberculosis epidemics is largely influenced by the impact of the resistance mechanism on bacterial fitness, we wished to investigate whether compensatory evolution occurs in drug-resistant clinical isolates of M. tuberculosis. By combining information from molecular epidemiology studies of drug-resistant clinical M. tuberculosis isolates with genetic reconstructions and measurements of aminoglycoside susceptibility and fitness in Mycobacterium smegmatis, we have reconstructed a plausible pathway for how aminoglycoside resistance develops in clinical isolates of M. tuberculosis. Thus, we show by reconstruction experiments that base changes in the highly conserved A-site of 16S rRNA that: (i) cause aminoglycoside resistance, (ii) confer a high fitness cost and (iii) destabilize a stem-loop structure, are associated with a particular compensatory point mutation that restores rRNA secondary structure and bacterial fitness, while maintaining to a large extent the drug-resistant phenotype. The same types of resistance and associated mutations can be found in M. tuberculosis in clinical isolates, suggesting that compensatory evolution contributes to the spread of drug-resistant tuberculosis disease.

• 出版日期2010-8
• 单位河北医科大学