Discovery of A Novel Mutation Conferring Rifampicin Resistance in E. coli

Robinson, Kyra

Student Work

Discovery of A Novel Mutation Conferring Rifampicin Resistance in E. coli

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Antibiotic resistance, the ability of bacteria to grow in the presence of an antibiotic, is a prevalent global health issue. Rifampicin is an antibiotic best known for its use in tuberculosis treatment, but it is also effective against E. coli. It targets RNA polymerase, specifically the β subunit. In E. coli, mutations between codons 500-575 of the gene encoding the β subunit, rpoB, are known to cause rifampicin resistance. The present study aimed to isolate rifampicin resistant E. coli and sequence this target region of rpoB in order to map the mutations that occur. Through this process, a novel nine base pair deletion of codons 515-517 was uncovered, in addition to seven previously reported point mutations. The growth of this deletion mutant was studied and found to have a doubling time of 33.1 minutes compared to the wildtype at 31.9 minutes, indicating that this mutation incurs a slight fitness cost in E. coli. The results presented here support previous findings and expand upon them by introducing a new mutation, which can further be characterized by investigating compensatory mutations and fitness costs.

This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

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