Infections caused by Acinetobacter baumannii are increasingly antibiotic resistant, generating a significant public health problem. Like many bacteria, A. baumannii adopts a biofilm lifestyle that enhances its antibiotic resistance and environmental resilience. Biofilms represent the predominant mode of microbial life, but research into antibiotic resistance has mainly focused on planktonic cells. We investigated the dynamics of A. baumannii biofilms in the presence of antibiotics. A 3-day exposure of A. baumannii biofilms to sub-inhibitory concentrations of antibiotics had a profound effect, increasing biofilm formation and antibiotic resistance in the majority of biofilm dispersal isolates. Cells dispersing from biofilms were genome sequenced to identify mutations accumulating in their genomes, and network analysis linked these mutations to their phenotypes. Transcriptomics of biofilms confirmed the network analysis results, revealing novel gene functions of relevance to both resistance and biofilm formation. This approach is a rapid and objective tool for investigating resistance dynamics of biofilms.

鲍曼不动杆菌引起的感染对抗生素的耐药性越来越高，从而产生了严重的公共卫生问题。像许多细菌一样，鲍曼不动杆菌采用生物膜生活方式，可以增强其抗生素抗性和环境适应性。生物膜代表了微生物生命的主要模式，但是对抗生素抗性的研究主要集中在浮游细胞上。我们研究了在存在抗生素的情况下鲍曼不动杆菌生物膜的动力学。鲍曼不动杆菌3天暴露生物膜对亚抑制浓度的抗生素产生了深远的影响，在大多数生物膜分散分离物中增加了生物膜的形成和对抗生素的耐药性。对从生物膜中分散的细胞进行基因组测序，以鉴定在其基因组中积累的突变，然后网络分析将这些突变与其表型联系起来。生物膜的转录组学证实了网络分析结果，揭示了与抗性和生物膜形成相关的新型基因功能。这种方法是研究生物膜抗性动力学的一种快速而客观的工具。