Description:

Microbiology-Immunology Seminar Series

"Antibiotic heteroresistance is a phenomenon in which genetically identical antibiotic susceptible and resistant subpopulations of bacterial cells co-exist, one type of "phenotypic resistance". The relevance of heteroresistance has been unclear, but we show in the bacterium Enterobacter cloacae that a subpopulation resistant to the "last-line" drug colistin can mediate treatment failure in vivo. Furthermore, if this subpopulation is present at a very low level, it can evade detection by current diagnostic tests. These findings highlight the clinical relevance of heteroresistance, which is also observed in fungal pathogens and human cancers."

David S. Weiss, PhD

Emory University

Host: Dr. Eva Gottwein and Dr. Wyndham Lathem