Abstract 2331 Leveraging Novel Tanzawaic Acid-Derived Conjugation Inhibitors to Study Antibiotic Resistance Mechanisms in Escherichia coli

Bacterial conjugation is a horizontal gene transfer mechanism associated with disseminating antibiotic resistance genes among bacteria. This process occurs via conjugative plasmids that are transferred through a multi-protein complex named type IV secretion system (T4SS). As conjugative plasmids are ubiquitous in the bacterial kingdom, inhibition of T4SS is a potential drug-design target to prevent the dissemination of antibiotic-resistance genes and, consequently, the proliferation of multi-drug resistant pathogens.