Collateral sensitivity of antibiotic-resistant microbes

Trends Microbiol. 2015 Jul;23(7):401-7. doi: 10.1016/j.tim.2015.02.009. Epub 2015 Mar 25.

Abstract

Understanding how evolution of microbial resistance towards a given antibiotic influences susceptibility to other drugs is a challenge of profound importance. By combining laboratory evolution, genome sequencing, and functional analyses, recent works have charted the map of evolutionary trade-offs between antibiotics and have explored the underlying molecular mechanisms. Strikingly, mutations that caused multidrug resistance in bacteria simultaneously enhanced sensitivity to many other unrelated drugs (collateral sensitivity). Here, we explore how this emerging research sheds new light on resistance mechanisms and the way it could be exploited for the development of alternative antimicrobial strategies.

Keywords: antibiotic resistance; collateral sensitivity; cross-resistance; experimental evolution; multidrug resistance.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Anti-Bacterial Agents / pharmacology*
  • Bacteria / drug effects*
  • Bacteria / genetics*
  • Directed Molecular Evolution
  • Drug Resistance, Multiple, Bacterial / genetics*
  • Evolution, Molecular*
  • Genome, Bacterial
  • Microbial Sensitivity Tests
  • Mutation
  • Sequence Analysis, DNA

Substances

  • Anti-Bacterial Agents