Berlin 2024 – scientific programme
Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Updates | Downloads | Help
BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 14: Poster IIa
BP 14.7: Poster
Tuesday, March 19, 2024, 18:00–20:30, Poster E
Antibiotic efflux-mediated interactions in a spatially structured bacterial population — •Silvia Vareschi1, Valerie Jaut2, Vijay Srinavisan1, Marco Mauri1, Frank Schreiber2, and Rosalind J. Allen1 — 1Friedrich Schiller University Jena — 2Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM), Berlin
Multidrug efflux pumps are transmembrane protein complexes that use energy to pump antibiotic outside bacteria. Efflux pumps are among the most common mechanisms by which bacteria become antibiotic resistant. Moreover, mutations that increase efflux pump expression have been found within bacterial biofilms - dense, surface-attached communities that are notoriously difficult to treat with antibiotics. Therefore it is important to understand the role of efflux pumps in the development of antibiotic tolerance in spatially structured bacterial assemblies.
This is a complex problem: on the one hand the local antibiotic concentration alters the growth rate and, potentially, the effluxing capability of bacteria, on the other hand bacteria affect the local antibiotic concentration both by importing the antibiotic and pumping it out.
Our central hypothesis is that this interplay leads to the emergence of antibiotic-mediated interactions between bacteria. These interactions can impact the overall antibiotic response of the population and its spatial structure. We present preliminary experimental data and theoretical analysis, showing how efflux activity, together with antibiotic influx, has non-trivial implications for the structure of a bacterial colony, and its fate in the presence of antibiotic.
Keywords: mathematical modelling; antibiotic resistance; antibiotic tolerance; biofilms; efflux pumps