Decreased thermal niche breadth as a trade-off of antibiotic resistance.

ABSTRACT: Evolutionary theory predicts that adaptations, including antibiotic resistance, should come with associated fitness costs; yet, many resistance mutations seemingly contradict this prediction by inducing no growth rate deficit. However, most growth assays comparing sensitive and resistant strains have been performed under a narrow range of environmental conditions, which do not reflect the variety of contexts that a pathogenic bacterium might encounter when causing infection. We hypothesized that reduced niche breadth, defined as diminished growth across a diversity of environments, can be a cost of antibiotic resistance. Specifically, we test whether chloramphenicol-resistant Escherichia coli incur disproportionate growth deficits in novel thermal conditions. Here we show that chlorampheni

SUBMITTER: Herren CM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9213455 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature