Pulsed antibiotic release into the environment may foster the spread of antimicrobial resistance.

ABSTRACT: The WHO has identified rising antibiotic resistance as a 'global threat,' highlighting the urgent need to understand how resistance spreads. A key concept is the minimum selective concentration (MSC)-the threshold at which resistant bacteria gain a competitive advantage. While MSC studies typically use single antibiotics under controlled conditions, real-world environments often contain fluctuating levels and mixtures of antibiotics from sources such as wastewater, complicating the dynamics of resistance spread. This study presents a mathematical model that simulates antibiotic accumulation in aquatic systems to evaluate the resulting influence on resistance selection in microbial communities. It incorporates antibiotic inputs, their photolytic and/or biotic degradation, and microbial comp

SUBMITTER: Bockmann M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12750453 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature