Bacterial infections caused by Gram-negative bacteria such as
Escherichia coli are frequently resistant to two or more
antibiotics (multi-drug resistant). Because introduction of new
antibiotics will not eliminate the problem of multi-drug
resistance (mdr), mdr type infections constitute a major health
threat, especially to patients that acquire such infections
nosocomially. The manner by which mdr develops has become an
area of intense research and the recent investigations conducted
by an international group consisting of American, Portuguese and
French scientists have identified the genetic sequence of events
that lead to mdr phenotypes of Gram-negative bacteria. The
study, entitled "Antibiotic Stress, Genetic Response and Altered
Permeability of E. coli," will be published the 11th April issue
of the international, peer-reviewed, open-access online journal
of the Public Library of Science, PLoS ONE. Briefly, prolonged
exposure to increasing concentrations of tetracycline cause
increased sequential activit