Bartosz Janic

Abstract Acinetobacter baumannii is a Gram-negative nosocomial pathogen that is notorious for its rapid development of antibiotic resistance. However, its ecology and evolution outside hospital settings remain poorly defined. Here, we demonstrate that the natural lifestyle of A. baumannii includes soil-dwelling and airborne dissemination, which helps explaining its adaptability and tolerance to desiccation, radiation and antibiotics, and thus its predisposition to establish within hospitals.

1 INTRODUCTION A general feature of all living cells is their vulnerability to external stimuli, including environmental stressors. Stress-induced stimuli develop a universal response in organisms independent of the affecting factor. One of the reactions to a number of anthropogenic and natural stressors is the enhancement of steady-state reactive oxygen species (ROS) concentration called ‘oxidative stress’ (Birnie-Gauvin et al., 2017; Lushchak, 2011; Monaghan et al., 2009).