Temporal dynamics of bacteria-plasmid coevolution under antibiotic selection

Horizontally acquired genes can be costly to express even if they encode useful traits, such as antibiotic resistance. We previously showed that when selected with tetracycline, Escherichia coli carrying the tetracycline-resistance plasmid RK2 evolved mutations on both replicons that together provid...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The ISME Journal 2019-02, Vol.13 (2), p.559-562
Main Authors: Bottery, Michael J., Wood, A. Jamie, Brockhurst, Michael A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
45/23
631/181/735
631/326/22/1290
Adaptation, Physiological - drug effects
Adaptation, Physiological - genetics
Antibiotic resistance
Antibiotics
Bacteria
Biological Coevolution
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Brief Communication
Coevolution
E coli
Ecology
Efflux
Escherichia coli - drug effects
Escherichia coli - genetics
Evolution
Evolutionary Biology
Gene sequencing
Gene Transfer, Horizontal
Genomes
Lag phase
Life Sciences
Microbial Ecology
Microbial Genetics and Genomics
Microbiology
Mutation
Penicillin
Plasmids - genetics
Replicon
Selection, Genetic
Tetracycline - pharmacology
Tetracycline Resistance - genetics
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Summary:Horizontally acquired genes can be costly to express even if they encode useful traits, such as antibiotic resistance. We previously showed that when selected with tetracycline, Escherichia coli carrying the tetracycline-resistance plasmid RK2 evolved mutations on both replicons that together provided increased tetracycline resistance at reduced cost. Here we investigate the temporal dynamics of this intragenomic coevolution. Using genome sequencing we show that the order of adaptive mutations was highly repeatable across three independently evolving populations. Each population first gained a chromosomal mutation in ompF which shortened lag phase and increased tetracycline resistance. This was followed by mutations impairing the plasmid-encoded tetracycline efflux pump, and finally, additional resistance-associated chromosomal mutations. Thus, reducing the cost of the horizontally acquired tetracycline resistance was contingent on first evolving a degree of chromosomally encoded resistance. We conclude therefore that the trajectory of bacteria-plasmid coevolution was constrained to a single repeatable path.
ISSN:1751-7362
1751-7370
DOI:10.1038/s41396-018-0276-9