Bacterial adaptation to sublethal antibiotic gradients can change the ecological properties of multitrophic microbial communities.

ABSTRACT: Antibiotics leak constantly into environments due to widespread use in agriculture and human therapy. Although sublethal concentrations are well known to select for antibiotic-resistant bacteria, little is known about how bacterial evolution cascades through food webs, having indirect effect on species not directly affected by antibiotics (e.g. via population dynamics or pleiotropic effects). Here, we used an experimental evolution approach to test how temporal patterns of antibiotic stress, as well as migration within metapopulations, affect the evolution and ecology of microcosms containing one prey bacterium, one phage and two protist predators. We found that environmental variability, autocorrelation and migration had only subtle effects for population and evolutionary dynamics. Howeve

SUBMITTER: Friman VP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4426614 | biostudies-literature | 2015 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature