Biofilm Persister Cell Formation, and Relative Gene Expression Analysis of Type II Toxin-Antitoxin System in Pseudomonas Aeruginosa Strains in the Exponential and Stationary Phases

Abstract

Chronic and persistent infections and therapy failure are concerning issues in patients with Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections. Presence of persister cells in biofilm considers as one from the causes for antibiotic resistance and treatment failure. Consequently, in this research, the expression of TA type II systems into persister formation of biofilm was assessed in presence of colistin ciprofloxacin antibiotics into exponential and stationary phases. The results showed that TA systems at different stages of bacterial growth in biofilm have different functions that subsequently, cause differences in the presence amount of persister cells at each stage of bacterial growth. The expression of the systems were measured by Real-Time PCR method. Keywords: Persister cell; Biofilm; Pseudomonas aeruginosa; TA systems; Real-time PCR; Exponential and Stationary phases