The Impact of Natural Transformation on the Acquisition of Antibiotic Resistance Determinants

Carbapenem and multidrug-resistant (MDR) Acinetobacter baumannii leads the World Health Organization’s list of priority pathogens and represents an unmet medical need. Understanding the mechanisms underpinning the acquisition of antibiotic resistance in this pathogen is fundamental to the development of novel therapeutics as well as to infection prevention and antibiotic stewardship strategies designed to limit its spread. In their investigation, “Interbacterial Transfer of Carbapenem Resistance and Large Antibiotic Resistance Islands by Natural Transformation in Pathogenic Acinetobacter,” Anne-Sophie Godeux and colleagues (mBio 13:e0263121, 2022, https://doi.org/10.1128/mBio.02631-21) delineate the unsuspected extent and circumstances under which natural transformation as a mechanism of intraspecies and interspecies exchange of genetic material occurs in Acinetobacter spp. This study offers key insights into how this notorious pathogen may have accelerated the development of its MDR phenotype via an unexpectedly robust and unnervingly casual approach to the acquisition of antibiotic resistance determinants through natural transformation.