The emergence, maintenance, and demise of diversity in a spatially variable antibiotic regime.

ABSTRACT: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a growing global threat that, in the absence of new antibiotics, requires effective management of existing drugs. Here, we use experimental evolution of the opportunistic human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa to explore how changing patterns of drug delivery modulates the spread of resistance in a population. Resistance evolves readily under both temporal and spatial variation in drug delivery and fixes rapidly under temporal, but not spatial, variation. Resistant and sensitive genotypes coexist in spatially varying conditions due to a resistance-growth rate trade-off which, when coupled to dispersal, generates negative frequency-dependent selection and a quasi-protected polymorphism. Coexistence is ultimately lost, however, because resistant types

SUBMITTER: Leale AM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6121846 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature