Bacterial cheating drives the population dynamics of cooperative antibiotic resistance plasmids
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Gore_Bacterial cheating.pdf
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Author(s)
Chao, Hui Xiao
Artemova, Tatiana
Gore, Jeff
Yurtsev, Eugene
Datta, Manoshi Sen
Date Issued
August 2013
Journal
Molecular Systems Biology
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
Citation
Yurtsev, Eugene A, Hui Xiao Chao, Manoshi S Datta, Tatiana Artemova, and Jeff Gore. “Bacterial Cheating Drives the Population Dynamics of Cooperative Antibiotic Resistance Plasmids.” Molecular Systems Biology 9 (August 6, 2013). © 2013 EMBO and Macmillan Publishers Limit
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Inactivation of β‐lactam antibiotics by resistant bacteria is a ‘cooperative’ behavior that may allow sensitive bacteria to survive antibiotic treatment. However, the factors that determine the fraction of resistant cells in the bacterial population remain unclear, indicating a fundamental gap in our understanding of how antibiotic resistance evolves. Here, we experimentally track the spread of a plasmid that encodes a β‐lactamase enzyme through the bacterial population. We find that independent of the initial fraction of resistant cells, the population settles to an equilibrium fraction proportional to the antibiotic concentration divided by the cell density. A simple model explains this behavior, successfully predicting a data collapse over two orders of magnitude in antibiotic concentration. This model also successfully predicts that adding a commonly used β‐lactamase inhibitor will lead to the spread of resistance, highlighting the need to incorporate social dynamics into the study of antibiotic resistance.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Computational and Systems Biology Program
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
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Creative Commons Attribution
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1038/msb.2013.39
