An AcrAB-mediated multidrug-resistant phenotype is maintained following restoration of wild-type activities by efflux pump genes and their regulators

Abstract In this study, we aimed to answer the following question: ‘How does a bacterium become so resistant to a given antibiotic even though the levels of antibiotic to which it has become resistant remained constant in the patient?’ Escherichia coli AG100 strain induced to high-level resistance due to overexpression of an AcrAB efflux pump was serially cultured in 10 mg/L tetracycline for 60 passages. Between each passage it became increasingly resistant to tetracycline, β-lactams and quinolones with concomitant restoration of wild-type AcrAB activity. Because the multidrug-resistant phenotype could not be reversed with transfer to drug-free medium or with efflux pump inhibitors, it may have resulted from activation of a ‘mutator gene’ system that reduced the ‘energy consumption’ associated with an overexpressed efflux pump system.