Limits to compensatory adaptation and the persistence of antibiotic resistance in pathogenic bacteria

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007-2013)/ERC grant agreement no. 281591 and from the Royal Society.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Stochastic bacterial population dynamics restrict the establishment of antibiotic resistance from single cells

A better understanding of how antibiotic exposure impacts the evolution of resistance in bacterial populations is crucial for designing more sustainable treatment strategies. The conventional approach to this question is to measure the range of concentrations over which resistant strain(s) are selectively favored over a sensitive strain. Here, we instead investigate how antibiotic concentration impacts the initial establishment of resistance from single cells, mimicking the clonal expansion of a resistant lineage following mutation or horizontal gene transfer. Using two Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains carrying resistance plasmids, we show that single resistant cells have <5% probability of detectable outgrowth at antibiotic concentrations as low as one-eighth of the resistant strain’s minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC). This low probability of establishment is due to detrimental effects of antibiotics on resistant cells, coupled with the inherently stochastic nature of cell division and death on the single-cell level, which leads to loss of many nascent resistant lineages. Our findings suggest that moderate doses of antibiotics, well below the MIC of resistant strains, may effectively restrict de novo emergence of resistance even though they cannot clear already-large resistant populations

Influence of 2-methoxyestradiol and sex on hypoxia-induced pulmonary hypertension and hypoxia-inducible factor‐1‐α

Background: Women are at greater risk of developing pulmonary arterial hypertension, with estrogen and its downstream metabolites playing a potential role in the pathogenesis of the disease. Hypoxia‐inducible factor‐1‐α (HIF1α) is a pro‐proliferative mediator and may be involved in the development of human pulmonary arterial hypertension. The estrogen metabolite 2‐methoxyestradiol (2ME2) has antiproliferative properties and is also an inhibitor of HIF1α. Here, we examine sex differences in HIF1α signaling in the rat and human pulmonary circulation and determine if 2ME2 can inhibit HIF1α in vivo and in vitro. Methods and Results: HIF1α signaling was assessed in male and female distal human pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells (hPASMCs), and the effects of 2ME2 were also studied in female hPASMCs. The in vivo effects of 2ME2 in the chronic hypoxic rat (male and female) model of pulmonary hypertension were also determined. Basal HIF1α protein expression was higher in female hPASMCs compared with male. Both factor‐inhibiting HIF and prolyl hydroxylase‐2 (hydroxylates HIF leading to proteosomal degradation) protein levels were significantly lower in female hPASMCs when compared with males. In vivo, 2ME2 ablated hypoxia‐induced pulmonary hypertension in male and female rats while decreasing protein expression of HIF1α. 2ME2 reduced proliferation in hPASMCs and reduced basal protein expression of HIF1α. Furthermore, 2ME2 caused apoptosis and significant disruption to the microtubule network. Conclusions: Higher basal HIF1α in female hPASMCs may increase susceptibility to developing pulmonary arterial hypertension. These data also demonstrate that the antiproliferative and therapeutic effects of 2ME2 in pulmonary hypertension may involve inhibition of HIF1α and/or microtubular disruption in PASMCs

Testing the Role of Genetic Background in Parallel Evolution Using the Comparative Experimental Evolution of Antibiotic Resistance

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013)/ERC grant agreement no. 281591 and from the Royal Society. V.F. was supported by an MEC Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Spanish Government (EX-2010-0958). T.V. and M.K. carried out the experimental work and analyzed experimental data with R.C.M.; V.F. constructed the phylogeny; V.F. and T.V. carried out comparative analyses; T.V. and R.C.M. prepared the manuscript and all authors contributed to designing the study.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Role of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor in Sugen 5416-induced experimental pulmonary hypertension

Rationale: Rats dosed with the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) inhibitor Sugen 5416 (Su), placed in hypoxia then restored to normoxia has become a widely used model of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). The mechanism by which Su exaccerbates pulmonary hypertension is, however, unclear. Objectives: We investigated Su-activation of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) in patient human pulmonary arterial smooth muscle cells (hPASMCs) and patient blood outgrowth endothelial cells (BOECs). We also examined the effect of AhR on aromatase and estrogen levels in the lung. Methods, Measurements and Main Results: Protein and mRNA analysis demonstrated that CYP1A1 was very highly induced in the lungs of Su/hypoxic (Su/Hx) rats. The AhR antagonist CH223191 (8mg/kg/day) reversed the development of PAH in this model in vivo and normalized lung CYP1A1 expression. Increased lung aromatase and estrogen levels in Su/Hx rats were also normalized by CH223191 as was AhR nuclear translocator (ARNT [HIF-1β]) which is shared by HIF-1α and AhR. Su reduced HIF1α expression in hPASMCs. Su induced proliferation in BOECs and increased apoptosis in human pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells (hPMECs) and also induced translocation of AhR to the nucleus in hPASMCs. Under normoxic conditions, hPASMCs do not proliferate to Su. However when grown in hypoxia (1%) Su induced hPASMC proliferation. Conclusion: In combination with hypoxia, Su is proliferative in patient hPASMCs and patient BOECs and Su/Hx-induced PAH in rats may be facilitated by AhR-induced CYP1A1, ARNT and aromatase. Inhibition of the AhR receptor may be a novel approach to the treatment of pulmonary hypertension

Interactions between horizontally acquired genes create a fitness cost in Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) plays a key role in bacterial evolution, especially with respect to antibiotic resistance. Fitness costs associated with mobile genetic elements (MGEs) are thought to constrain HGT, but our understanding of these costs remains fragmentary, making it difficult to predict the success of HGT events. Here we use the interaction between P. aeruginosa and a costly plasmid (pNUK73) to investigate the molecular basis of the cost of HGT. Using RNA-Seq, we show that the acquisition of pNUK73 results in a profound alteration of the transcriptional profile of chromosomal genes. Mutations that inactivate two genes encoded on chromosomally integrated MGEs recover these fitness costs and transcriptional changes by decreasing the expression of the pNUK73 replication gene. Our study demonstrates that interactions between MGEs can compromise bacterial fitness via altered gene expression, and we argue that conflicts between mobile elements impose a general constraint on evolution by HGT

Compensatory mutations modulate the competitiveness and dynamics of plasmid-mediated colistin resistance in Escherichia coli clones

The emergence of mobile colistin resistance (mcr) threatens to undermine the clinical efficacy of the last antibiotic that can be used to treat serious infections caused by Gram-negative pathogens. Here we measure the fitness cost of a newly discovered MCR-3 using in vitro growth and competition assays. mcr-3 expression confers a lower fitness cost than mcr-1, as determined by competitive ability and cell viability. Consistent with these findings, plasmids carrying mcr-3 have higher stability than mcr-1 plasmids across a range of Escherichia coli strains. Crucially, mcr-3 plasmids can stably persist, even in the absence of colistin. Recent compensatory evolution has helped to offset the cost of mcr-3 expression, as demonstrated by the high fitness of mcr-3.5 as opposed to mcr-3.1. Reconstructing all of the possible evolutionary trajectories from mcr-3.1 to mcr-3.5 reveals a complex fitness landscape shaped by negative epistasis between compensatory and neutral mutations. Our findings highlight the importance of fitness costs and compensatory evolution in driving the dynamics and stability of mobile colistin resistance in bacterial populations, and they highlight the need to understand how processes (other than colistin use) impact mcr dynamics

Population genetics of trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense: clonality and diversity within and between foci

African trypanosomes are unusual among pathogenic protozoa in that they can undergo their complete morphological life cycle in the tsetse fly vector with mating as a non-obligatory part of this development. Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense, which infects humans and livestock in East and Southern Africa, has classically been described as a host-range variant of the non-human infective Trypanosoma brucei that occurs as stable clonal lineages. We have examined T. b. rhodesiense populations from East (Uganda) and Southern (Malawi) Africa using a panel of microsatellite markers, incorporating both spatial and temporal analyses. Our data demonstrate that Ugandan T. b. rhodesiense existed as clonal populations, with a small number of highly related genotypes and substantial linkage disequilibrium between pairs of loci. However, these populations were not stable as the dominant genotypes changed and the genetic diversity also reduced over time. Thus these populations do not conform to one of the criteria for strict clonality, namely stability of predominant genotypes over time, and our results show that, in a period in the mid 1990s, the previously predominant genotypes were not detected but were replaced by a novel clonal population with limited genetic relationship to the original population present between 1970 and 1990. In contrast, the Malawi T. b. rhodesiense population demonstrated significantly greater diversity and evidence for frequent genetic exchange. Therefore, the population genetics of T. b. rhodesiense is more complex than previously described. This has important implications for the spread of the single copy T. b. rhodesiense gene that allows human infectivity, and therefore the epidemiology of the human disease, as well as suggesting that these parasites represent an important organism to study the influence of optional recombination upon population genetic dynamics

A Mixture of “Cheats” and “Co-Operators” Can Enable Maximal Group Benefit

It is commonly assumed that the world would be best off if everyone co-operates. Experimental and mathematical analysis of “co-operation” in yeast show why this isn't always the case

Staphylococcal phages and pathogenicity islands drive plasmid evolution

Conjugation has classically been considered the main mechanism driving plasmid transfer in nature. Yet bacteria frequently carry so-called non-transmissible plasmids, raising questions about how these plasmids spread. Interestingly, the size of many mobilisable and non-transmissible plasmids coincides with the average size of phages (~40 kb) or that of a family of pathogenicity islands, the phage-inducible chromosomal islands (PICIs, ~11 kb). Here, we show that phages and PICIs from Staphylococcus aureus can mediate intra- and inter-species plasmid transfer via generalised transduction, potentially contributing to non-transmissible plasmid spread in nature. Further, staphylococcal PICIs enhance plasmid packaging efficiency, and phages and PICIs exert selective pressures on plasmids via the physical capacity of their capsids, explaining the bimodal size distribution observed for non-conjugative plasmids. Our results highlight that transducing agents (phages, PICIs) have important roles in bacterial plasmid evolution and, potentially, in antimicrobial resistance transmission