Panithi LeesukonWilaiwan WirathornTatsanee ChuchueNisanart CharoenlapSkorn MongkolsukMahidol UniversityChulabhorn Research InstituteThailand Ministry of Education2018-10-192018-10-192013-09-01Archives of Microbiology. Vol.195, No.9 (2013), 671-6741432072X030289332-s2.0-84884281807https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/20.500.14594/31229The presence of the widely used selectable antibiotic marker, tetA(C), unexpectedly increased the sensitivity of Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 to the superoxide-generating herbicide, paraquat. A DNA fragment spanning the first 99 amino acids of TetA(C) was sufficient to confer paraquat sensitivity. The TetA(C)-induced paraquat sensitive phenotype was observed in other Gram-negative bacteria such as Agrobacterium tumefaciens, Salmonella enterica ser. Typhimurium and Xanthomonas campestris suggesting that this is a general property of tetA(C). This finding serves as a cautionary note for those using tetA(C) as a selectable marker for genetic manipulations in studies using paraquat either as a superoxide stress generator or a redox cycling drug. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.Mahidol UniversityBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular BiologyImmunology and MicrobiologyArticleSCOPUS10.1007/s00203-013-0913-7