Stress Responses of Bacterial Cells as Mechanism of Development of Antibiotic Tolerance (Review)

Abstract

The defense mechanisms of bacterial cells against antibiotics, which induce specific complexes of adaptive reactions at the levels of replication, transcription, translation, and enzymatic activity, are reviewed. These adaptive reactions are conventionally considered to be stress responses. Specific stress responses are integrated in an adaptive network that is flexible in its reaction to environmental signals and capable of increasing antibiotic tolerance and maintaining the viability of bacterial cells in order to restart their growth once environmental conditions are again optimal. This facilitates the selection of mutations with high resistance to antibiotics. A prerequisite of efficient tools for the inhibition of such resistance is a profound knowledge of the mechanisms responsible for the development of physiological tolerance.