Sulfonamide sensitive bacterial strains were exposed to sub inhibitory sulfonamide concentration to examine the effect of sub inhibitory concentration on the resistance development.. Mechanism of the development of sulfonamide resistance

Sulfonamide sentitive bacterial strains were adapted and evolved through a stepwise increased sulfonamide concentrations. Evolved strains showed increasing minimal inhibition concentration and therefore were analysed using whole genome sequencing to identify the mutational events that could be responsible for the resistance development. Results showed mutation on DHPS genes as well as hypothetical proteins suggesting that the bacterial strains could development resistance upon exposure to sub inhibitory antibiotic concentration and the mechanism could be by typical antibiotic resistance genes or through cellular adaptations. Further study using proteomic approach is proposed to confirm the effects of mutations detected in terms of genes expression.