Bleomycin increases amikacin and streptomycin resistance in Escherichia coli harboring transposon Tn5

How antibiotics cause antibiotic resistance

Antimicrobial agents are approaching the end of their effectiveness. The prevailing drug development strategy is based on a presumption that results in resistance: that disease can be cured by exploitation of the vulnerabilities in microbial reproduction. Although some did predict the evolution of resistance to such drugs, the mechanisms by which genes conferring resistance have spread was not predicted. The author argues that the mechanism of spread is a consequence of the chemotherapeutics themselves acting on the evolution of pathogens, and that for future drugs to remain effective they must avoid such effects.It is thus not the individual who forms language; it is the language which forms the individual. -Alberto to Sophie in Sophie's World [Gaarder, J. (1995) Phoenix House, London]

Some repair-deficient mutants of Dictyostelium discoideum display enhanced susceptibilities to bleomycin

Dictyostelium discoideum, a soil eukaryote, is highly resistant to DNA-damaging agents; repair mutants are more susceptible. Susceptibility to bleomycin, produced by Streptomyces verticillus, is greater for mutants which are susceptible to other agents than for resistant strains. The high potential for DNA repair may result from the need to cope with chemicals produced by other soil microorganisms.

Non-canonical mechanisms of antibiotic resistance

Although the current in vitro methods used for detection and analysis of the phenotypes of antibiotic resistance in the laboratory are well established, other resistance mechanisms of resistance exist which may escape detection using the standard approach. The present article reviews some of these mechanisms which are grouped under the term 'non-canonical mechanisms' of antibiotic resistance. Such mechanisms include gene dosage, heterologous induction or selection, populational resistance and synergism between mechanisms of low resistance. The role of these mechanisms in the failure of therapy is discussed.