Adaptation Through Lifestyle Switching Sculpts the Fitness Landscape of Evolving Populations: Implications for the Selection of Drug-Resistant Bacteria at Low Drug Pressures.

ABSTRACT: Novel genotypes evolve under selection through mutations in pre-existing genes. However, mutations have pleiotropic phenotypic effects that influence the fitness of emerging genotypes in complex ways. The evolution of antimicrobial resistance is mediated by selection of mutations in genes coding for antibiotic-target proteins. Drug-resistance is commonly associated with a fitness cost due to the impact of resistance-conferring mutations on protein function and/or stability. These costs are expected to prohibit the selection of drug-resistant mutations at low drug pressures. Using laboratory evolution of rifampicin resistance in Escherichia coli, we show that when exposed intermittently to low concentration (0.1 × minimal inhibitory concentration) of rifampicin, the evolution of cano

SUBMITTER: Matange N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6404241 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature