Antibiotic-resistant bacteria change cell structure

Scientists have studied transformations that affected the external and internal structure of microorganisms in order to

determine whether these metamorphoses canindicate drug resistance. They took close-up pictures of sensitive and drug-resistant bacteria using a technique called transmission electron microscopy. The researchers then applied deep learning techniques to the images to identify features that strongly correlated with drug resistance.

“We found that bacteria resistant toantibiotic called enoxacin showed differences in cell shape, outer membrane structure, periplasmic space, granule content and arrangement compared to a drug-sensitive strain," explains study author Kunihiko Nishino.

Structural changes were also closely associated with mutations in the lpp gene, which encodes the main structural component of the outer membrane.

“Our results show that bacteria changeits structure in the acquisition of drug resistance and that these changes can be detected with high accuracy using a machine learning algorithm,” says the lead author of the project, Hayashi-Nishino.

Study Results Demonstrate Successthe research team's method, which is to visualize the structural features of drug-resistant bacteria. The novel approach is expected to be used to develop technology that can automatically predict drug resistance based on changes in bacterial shape without the need for drug-based screening.

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