Team II Comparative Genomics Group

Introduction

Background

Comparative genomics is the study of comparing genome sequences to better understand the structure and function of genes.

Fosfomycin

Fosfomycin is a natural antibacterial produced by various Streptomyces and Pseudomonas species. It is the only antibiotic currently in clinical use that targets a Mur enzyme. It is broad-spectrum bactericidal antibiotic that can be employed against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. It interferes with cell wall synthesis, particularly inhibits the initial step involving phosphoenolpyruvate synthetase, as shown below.

Resistance of Fosfomycin involves a wide range of resistance mechanisms. Some of them include reduced uptake, target site modification, expression of antibiotic-degrading enzymes and rescue of the UDP-MurNAc biogenesis pathway (ex. mutation within MurA enzyme).

Objectives

To identify genetic determinants that could be a potential cause for Fosfomycin heteroresistance in the isolates provided.

Data

The following is the metadata of our study:

References

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Guo, Qinglan et al. “Glutathione-S-Transferase FosA6 of Klebsiella Pneumoniae Origin Conferring Fosfomycin Resistance in ESBL-Producing Escherichia Coli.” Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy 71.9 (2016): 2460–2465.
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