Effects of prior exposure to antibiotics on bacterial adaptation to phages

Understanding adaptation to complex environments requires information about how exposure to one selection pressure affects adaptation to others. For bacteria, antibiotics and viral parasites (phages) are two of the most common selection pressures and are both relevant for treatment of bacterial infections: increasing antibiotic resistance is generating significant interest in using phages in addition or as an alternative to antibiotics. However, we lack knowledge of how exposure to antibiotics affects bacterial responses to phages. Specifically, it is unclear how the negative effects of antibiotics on bacterial population growth combine with any possible mutagenic effects or physiological responses to influence adaptation to other stressors such as phages, and how this net effect varies with antibiotic concentration. Here, we experimentally addressed the effect of pre-exposure to a wide range of antibiotic concentrations on bacterial responses to phages. Across 10 antibiotics, we found...要解析复杂环境中的适应性演化机制，需明确单一选择压力的暴露如何影响生物体对其他选择压力的适应性。对于细菌而言，抗生素与病毒性寄生物噬菌体（phages）是两类最常见的选择压力，二者均与细菌感染的临床治疗密切相关。随着抗生素耐药性问题日益严峻，学界对将噬菌体作为抗生素的补充疗法或替代疗法展现出浓厚兴趣。然而，目前学界仍未明确抗生素暴露如何影响细菌对噬菌体的应答反应，相关认知仍存在空白。具体而言，抗生素对细菌种群生长的抑制作用，与潜在的诱变效应或生理应答，将如何共同影响细菌对噬菌体等其他胁迫因子的适应性，且这一净效应如何随抗生素浓度发生变化，目前仍未得到明确阐释。本研究通过实验探究了不同浓度抗生素预暴露对细菌噬菌体应答的影响。在涵盖10种抗生素的实验中，我们发现……