Multisite phosphorylation drives phenotypic variation in (p)ppGpp synthetase-dependent antibiotic tolerance

Abstract

Individual bacteria within isogenic populations can differ in antibiotic tolerance. Here, Libby et al. show that antibiotic tolerance variability can be driven by ‘noisy’ expression of a gene encoding a (p)ppGpp synthetase, which is in turn regulated by multisite phosphorylation of a transcription factor.