Phenotypic adaptation to antibiotics: t/rRNA modifications – ModRNAntibio

The goal of this project is to study the strategies undertaken by Gram-negative bacteria to respond to sub-lethal antibiotic stress, and particularly the role RNA modifications and translation fidelity and efficiency. Bacteria frequently encounter low antibiotic concentrations in their environments, which significantly influences development of antibiotic resistance. Based on preliminary results pointing to a central a role of RNA modifications in the response to low dose antibiotic stress, we hypothesize that in such conditions, translation is impacted, which generates diversity in bacterial proteome. Such diversity could be beneficial for some cells and even if not inherited, could promote survival and emergence of antibiotic resistance and persistence. We will explore transfer RNA modifications and translation fidelity and efficiency of codon decoding in response to sub-lethal concentrations of 4 antibiotics by characterizing the overall patterns of translation errors in bacterial proteome and explore the underlying molecular mechanisms.