Gene-Gene Interactions Dictate Ciprofloxacin Resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Facilitate Prediction of Resistance Phenotype from Genome Sequence Data
Attika Rehman, Julie Jeukens, Roger C. Lévesque, Iain L. Lamont
Abstract
further increased the MIC. These findings reveal an epistatic network of gene-gene interactions in ciprofloxacin resistance. We used this information to predict ciprofloxacin resistance/susceptibility for 274 isolates of P. aeruginosa from their genome sequences. Antibiotic susceptibility profiles were predicted correctly for 84% of the isolates. The majority of isolates for which prediction was unsuccessful were ciprofloxacin resistant, demonstrating the involvement of additional as yet unidentified genes and mutations in resistance. Our data show that gene-gene interactions can play an important role in antibiotic resistance and can be successfully incorporated into models predicting resistance phenotype.