Synergistic effect of dosage and bacterial inoculum in TEM-1 mediated antibiotic resistance

The effect of inoculum size and gene dosage on the level of antibiotic resistance mediated by TEM-1 beta-lactamase was measured. From the results it seemed that gene dosage is a more efficient mechanism than inoculum size for increasing TEM-1 mediated resistance to beta-lactam antibiotics. It also seemed that the two mechanisms for enhancing antibiotic resistance are synergistic. The clinical implications of these results are discussed.