10
views
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
0 collections
    0
    shares
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: not found

      The role of the qacA gene in mediating resistance to quaternary ammonium compounds.

      Microbial drug resistance (Larchmont, N.Y.)
      Anti-Bacterial Agents, administration & dosage, pharmacology, Bacterial Proteins, genetics, Benzalkonium Compounds, Drug Resistance, Bacterial, Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial, Membrane Transport Proteins, Microbial Sensitivity Tests, Multidrug Resistance-Associated Proteins, Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction, Staphylococcus aureus, drug effects

      Read this article at

      ScienceOpenPublisherPubMed
      Bookmark
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          Conditions facilitating resistance to quaternary ammonium compounds (QACs) were investigated in Staphylococcus aureus SK982 exposed to benzalkonium chloride (BAC; a member of QACs) under various circumstances. S. aureus SK982 carrying the qacA gene encoding for resistance to QACs was grown in the presence of stable or gradually increasing concentrations of BAC, or it was exposed to this antiseptic in the exponential phase of growth. Bacteria cultivated in the highest BAC concentrations that did not retard their growth comparing to the untreated control were subjected to real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis for relative expression of the efflux genes qacA and norA. Under such conditions, S. aureus SK982 tolerated a relatively low stable concentration of BAC (1.22 mg/L) when compared with a gradually increasing antiseptic concentration (tolerance of 4.88 mg/L). However, in both cases, qacA expression was not significant. The culture exposed in the exponential phase of growth tolerated the highest concentration of BAC (9.76 mg/L) as also accompanied by significant overexpression of qacA. Expression of norA was relatively low regardless of the conditions tested. It seems that under the short-term conditions, the phase of bacterial growth is more important for the expression of BAC resistance than the capability to adapt to this antiseptic. This study provides a deeper insight into the relevance of the qac genes in conferring resistance to QACs.

          Related collections

          Author and article information

          Comments

          Comment on this article