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Sucralose Increases Antimicrobial Resistance and Stimulates Recovery of Escherichia coli Mutants

Abstract

Because of heavy use of antimicrobials, antimicrobial resistance in bacteria has become of great concern. The effect of some widely used food additives such as sucralose on bacteria in the gut and the environment has also drawn increasing attention. In this study, we investigated the interaction between antimicrobials and sucralose impacting antimicrobial resistance and mutation of Escherichia coli (E. coli). To examine antimicrobial resistance and mutation frequency, different subinhibitory concentrations of sucralose were added to cultures of E.coli BW25113 that were then treated with antimicrobials, oxolinic acid, or moxifloxacin. Then the E.coli were assayed for bacterial survival and recovery of mutants resistant to an unrelated antimicrobial, rifampicin. Pre-treatment of E.coli BW25113 with 1/2 minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of sucralose increased the survival rate in oxolinic acid or moxifloxacin. A 1/3 MIC of sucralose increased rifampicin-resistant mutation rate of E.coli BW25113 after 72 h, while rifampicin-resistant mutation rate was increased when co-treated with 1/8 MIC, 1/4 MIC, 1/3 MIC sucralose, and oxolinic acid after 24 h. Sucralose can increase the antimicrobial resistance and mutation frequency of E.coli to some antimicrobials.

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Funding

This study was funded by Youth Science Foundation of Heilongjiang province of China (Grant Number QC2014C090) and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant Number 2013T60385).

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Correspondence to Xiuhong Wang.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Qu, Y., Li, R., Jiang, M. et al. Sucralose Increases Antimicrobial Resistance and Stimulates Recovery of Escherichia coli Mutants. Curr Microbiol 74, 885–888 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-017-1255-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-017-1255-5

Keywords

  • Sucralose
  • Escherichia coli
  • Antimicrobial resistance
  • Mutation frequency