Epistasis between antibiotic tolerance, persistence, and resistance mutations.

ABSTRACT: Understanding the evolution of microorganisms under antibiotic treatments is a burning issue. Typically, several resistance mutations can accumulate under antibiotic treatment, and the way in which resistance mutations interact, i.e., epistasis, has been extensively studied. We recently showed that the evolution of antibiotic resistance in Escherichia coli is facilitated by the early appearance of tolerance mutations. In contrast to resistance, which reduces the effectiveness of the drug concentration, tolerance increases resilience to antibiotic treatment duration in a nonspecific way, for example when bacteria transiently arrest their growth. Both result in increased survival under antibiotics, but the interaction between resistance and tolerance mutations has not been studied. He

SUBMITTER: Levin-Reisman I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6642377 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature