Understanding How Bacteria Evolve Resistance to Antibiotics
Author Information
Author(s): Roy Scott William
Primary Institution: National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health
Hypothesis
How predictable is the evolution of antibiotic resistance in bacteria?
Conclusion
The study found that even with relaxed assumptions, the evolution of antibiotic resistance in bacteria is still highly repeatable.
Supporting Evidence
- Only 27 out of 18 billion possible pathways led to increased resistance through positive selection.
- Allowing neutral mutations increased the number of accessible pathways from 27 to 629.
- Allowing double mutations increased the number of pathways to 4800.
Takeaway
This study looks at how bacteria can become resistant to antibiotics and finds that there are only a few ways this can happen, even when we allow for different types of mutations.
Methodology
The study analyzed the pathways of mutations in the E. coli β-lactamase gene that confer resistance to cefotaxime, using various models of selection.
Limitations
The study primarily focuses on specific mutations and may not account for all possible evolutionary pathways.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
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