Effect of antibiotic spectrum on the abundance of resistant bacteria in multispecies communities
Magnus Aspenberg, Erik Andreas Martens, Kristofer Wollein Waldetoft
TLDR
This paper develops a mathematical measure to predict how antibiotic spectrum influences resistant bacteria abundance in multispecies communities.
Key contributions
- Developed a mathematical measure for inter-taxon effects in complex microbial networks.
- Derived expected effects of antibiotic spectra on resistant bacteria abundance.
- Offers a theoretical basis for optimal antibiotic choice in multispecies communities.
Why it matters
Antibiotic resistance is a major global health threat. This paper provides a crucial theoretical framework to understand how antibiotic spectrum influences resistance in complex microbial communities, guiding empirical work on optimal antibiotic choice for better resistance management.
Original Abstract
Antibiotic resistance is a major threat to global health. It emerges in multispecies microbial communities under antibiotic exposure. This makes antibiotic spectrum -- a drug's distribution of effects across species -- a potential key parameter in resistance management. However, we currently lack evolutionary theory for resistance dynamics in a multispecies setting. Analysing established community ecology theory, we develop a simple mathematical measure for how one taxon (strain or species) affects another taxon through all direct and indirect interactions in a complex interaction network. Using this, we derive the expected effects of different antibiotic spectra on the abundance of resistant taxa in microbial communities. This furthers our understanding of microbial evolutionary ecology in multispecies communities, and provides a formal theoretical basis for empirical work on optimal antibiotic choice.
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