Understanding, predicting and manipulating the genotypic evolution of antibiotic resistance

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Abstract

The evolution of antibiotic resistance can now be rapidly tracked with high-throughput technologies for bacterial genotyping and phenotyping. Combined with new approaches to evolve resistance in the laboratory and to characterize clinically evolved resistant pathogens, these methods are revealing the molecular basis and rate of evolution of antibiotic resistance under treatment regimens of single drugs or drug combinations. In this Progress article, we review these new tools for studying the evolution of antibiotic resistance and discuss how the genomic and evolutionary insights they provide could transform the diagnosis, treatment and predictability of antibiotic resistance in bacterial infections.

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Most cited references 49

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Antibiotic resistance is ancient.

Vanessa M D'Costa, Christine E. King, Lindsay Kalan … (2011)

The discovery of antibiotics more than 70 years ago initiated a period of drug innovation and implementation in human and animal health and agriculture. These discoveries were tempered in all cases by the emergence of resistant microbes. This history has been interpreted to mean that antibiotic resistance in pathogenic bacteria is a modern phenomenon; this view is reinforced by the fact that collections of microbes that predate the antibiotic era are highly susceptible to antibiotics. Here we report targeted metagenomic analyses of rigorously authenticated ancient DNA from 30,000-year-old Beringian permafrost sediments and the identification of a highly diverse collection of genes encoding resistance to β-lactam, tetracycline and glycopeptide antibiotics. Structure and function studies on the complete vancomycin resistance element VanA confirmed its similarity to modern variants. These results show conclusively that antibiotic resistance is a natural phenomenon that predates the modern selective pressure of clinical antibiotic use. © 2011 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved

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Tn-seq; high-throughput parallel sequencing for fitness and genetic interaction studies in microorganisms

Tim van Opijnen, Kip Bodi, Andrew Camilli (2009)

Biological pathways are structured in complex networks of interacting genes. Solving the architecture of such networks may provide valuable information, such as how microorganisms cause disease. Here we present a method (Tn-seq) for accurately determining quantitative genetic interactions on a genome-wide scale in microorganisms. Tn-seq is based on the assembly of a saturated Mariner transposon insertion library. After library selection, changes in frequency of each insertion mutant are determined by sequencing of the flanking regions en masse. These changes are used to calculate each mutant’s fitness. Fitness was determined for each gene of the gram-positive bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae, a causative agent of pneumonia and meningitis. A genome-wide screen for genetic interactions identified both alleviating and aggravating interactions that could be further divided into seven distinct categories. Due to the wide activity of the Mariner transposon, Tn-seq has the potential to contribute to the exploration of complex pathways across many different species.

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Sampling the antibiotic resistome.

Vanessa M D'Costa, Katherine McGrann, Donald Hughes … (2006)

Microbial resistance to antibiotics currently spans all known classes of natural and synthetic compounds. It has not only hindered our treatment of infections but also dramatically reshaped drug discovery, yet its origins have not been systematically studied. Soil-dwelling bacteria produce and encounter a myriad of antibiotics, evolving corresponding sensing and evading strategies. They are a reservoir of resistance determinants that can be mobilized into the microbial community. Study of this reservoir could provide an early warning system for future clinically relevant antibiotic resistance mechanisms.