Compounding Effects of Climate Warming and Antibiotic Resistance

Alejandra Rodríguez-Verdugo; Natalie Lozano-Huntelman; Mauricio Cruz-Loya; Van Savage; Pamela Yeh

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2020.101024

Compounding Effects of Climate Warming and Antibiotic Resistance

iScience. 2020 Apr 24;23(4):101024. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2020.101024. Epub 2020 Mar 30.

Authors

Alejandra Rodríguez-Verdugo¹, Natalie Lozano-Huntelman², Mauricio Cruz-Loya³, Van Savage⁴, Pamela Yeh⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA.
² Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
³ Department of Computational Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
⁴ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA; Department of Computational Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA; Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM 87501, USA.
⁵ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA; Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM 87501, USA. Electronic address: pamelayeh@ucla.edu.

Abstract

Bacteria have evolved diverse mechanisms to survive environments with antibiotics. Temperature is both a key factor that affects the survival of bacteria in the presence of antibiotics and an environmental trait that is drastically increasing due to climate change. Therefore, it is timely and important to understand links between temperature changes and selection of antibiotic resistance. This review examines these links by synthesizing results from laboratories, hospitals, and environmental studies. First, we describe the transient physiological responses to temperature that alter cellular behavior and lead to antibiotic tolerance and persistence. Second, we focus on the link between thermal stress and the evolution and maintenance of antibiotic resistance mutations. Finally, we explore how local and global changes in temperature are associated with increases in antibiotic resistance and its spread. We suggest that a multidisciplinary, multiscale approach is critical to fully understand how temperature changes are contributing to the antibiotic crisis.

Keywords: Global Change; Microbiology.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

UL1 TR001881/TR/NCATS NIH HHS/United States