9.B.468. The Hfq RNA Chaparone Protein (Hfq) Family In addition to being a chaparone protein for sRNA, tRNA and mRNA, it seems to play roles in persister cell formation; upon overexpression decreases persister cell formation while deletion increases persister formation (Kim and Wood 2010) and in drug resistance in bacteria (Bloch et al. 2025).
References:
Bloch, S., G. Węgrzyn, and V. Arluison. (2025). The Role of the Hfq Protein in Bacterial Resistance to Antibiotics: A Narrative Review. Microorganisms 13:.
Kim, Y. and T.K. Wood. (2010). Toxins Hha and CspD and small RNA regulator Hfq are involved in persister cell formation through MqsR in Escherichia coli. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 391: 209-213.
Turbant, F., N. Lewandowska, S. Bloch, F. Wien, H. Chauvet, G. Węgrzyn, and V. Arluison. (2025). Hfq influences ciprofloxacin accumulation in Escherichia coli independently of ompC and ompF post-transcriptional regulation. J Appl Genet 66: 449-457.
Examples:
TC#	Name	Organismal Type	Example
9.B.468.1.1	The Hfq RNA chaparone protein of 102 aas. It influences persistence formation in bacteria and multidrug resistance (Bloch et al. 2025). Since fluoroquinolones use both protein- and lipid-mediated pathways to cross the outer membrane, Hfq probably influences both processes as its absence causes more effective accumulation of the antibiotic ciprofloxacin in Escherichia coli cells, irrespective of the presence or absence of the AcrB efflux pump (Turbant et al. 2025).		Hfq of E. coli