Arabidopsis thaliana exposed to regular (left) and doxycycline-containing water (right)ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FEDERALE, LAUSANNE, SWITZERLANDThe tetracycline-controlled promoter system is a widely used tool to conditionally switch gene transcription on or off in the presence of the eponymous antibiotic. Adding tetracyclines to eukaryotic cells leads to altered mitochondrial genome translation and cellular respiration defects across five widely used eukaryotic model systems—Arabidopsis thaliana, Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila melanogaster, laboratory mice, and human cell lines—according to a study published today (March 12) in Cell Reports.
The results suggest that using this gene expression control system likely has broad confounding effects on experimental outcomes in molecular biology. And with tetracyclines accounting for 41 percent of all antibiotics sold for use on livestock in the United States in 2011, according to the US Food and Drug Administration, environmental accumulation of the drugs could have detrimental ecological outcomes.
“This tool will now have to be employed with caution and of course with extensive controls,” Jodi Nunnari, a professor of molecular and cellular biology at the University of California, Davis, who was not involved in the work, wrote in an e-mail to The Scientist.
“This is a straightforward and clear story,” said Cole Haynes, who studies mitochondrial dysfunction at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center ...
