How Insertion Sequences Mobilize Antibiotic Resistance Genes
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$675,086.00
Summary
Resistance to all antibiotics available for treatment of bacterial infections is a cause for global concern (Word Health Organization, US Centres for Disease Control) as it also compromises therapies relying on antibiotics such as transplantation and cancer chemotherapy. This project will seek to understand how resistance genes are recruited and disseminated into different types of bacteria that repeatedly spread around the world.
Role Of IS26 In Antibiotic Resistance Gene Recruitment, Dissemination And Expression
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$457,879.00
Summary
Antibiotic resistance is increasing, compromising the efficacy of front-line antibiotics. Untreatable infections due to bacteria that are resistant to all available antibiotics are being seen more often. To control the spread of resistance, an understanding of how resistance arises and is spread among bacteria is needed. This requires information about how the genetic elements that mobilize them work. This project will study one of the most important of these elements.
Beta-lactamase Mediated Antibiotic Resistance In Gram-negative Pathogens: How Does Genotype Relate To Phenotype?
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$397,869.00
Summary
Unfortunately, one of the consequences of antibiotic usage (and in particular over-use and mis-use) is the development of resistance; if a small proportion of bacteria survive treatment, they can grow and replace the previous population of sensitive bacteria. In addition, the genes that confer resistance can be transferred between different bacterial lineages, thus facilitating the dissemination of resistant bacteria. The most important mechanism of penicillin resistance is through the expressio ....Unfortunately, one of the consequences of antibiotic usage (and in particular over-use and mis-use) is the development of resistance; if a small proportion of bacteria survive treatment, they can grow and replace the previous population of sensitive bacteria. In addition, the genes that confer resistance can be transferred between different bacterial lineages, thus facilitating the dissemination of resistant bacteria. The most important mechanism of penicillin resistance is through the expression of an enzyme called a beta-lactamase. This enzyme breaks down the penicillin. Beta-lactamase enzymes come in many different varieties, and new varieties appear quite frequently. Remarkably, when new kinds of penicillin are invented to circumvent resistance, the appearance of new beta-lactamases that can break down these new penicillins follows shortly thereafter. The objectives of our research are twofold. Firstly, it is now clear that the relationship between the beta-lactamase genes in a bacterium and the resulting pattern of resistance can be very complex. It can involve both the broad nature of the genes, the numbers of duplicates of the genes inside the cell, and very minor changes to the gene sequences. We will probe the relationship between the gene and resistance so as to understand it at a deeper level. Secondly, we will use this information to develop very efficient and cost affective methods for keeping track of the spread of the different varieties of beta-lactamase genes. These methods will be designed to be carried out on real-time PCR machines. These high-tech devices are general purpose gene analyzers that can carry out many different kinds of genetic assay. They are rapidly becoming ubiquitous in clinical microbiology laboratories. The use of these methods will provide much hard information that will be used to minimise the dissemination of antibiotic resistance.Read moreRead less