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I’m pleased to share our latest preprint on @biorxivpreprint : “Genomic evolution of antibiotic resistance is contingent on genetic background following a long-term experiment with Escherichia coli” https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.19.258384v1.abstract
In recent work published in #PLOSBiology, we used several strains from the #LTEE to examine the role that genetic background plays in the evolution of antibiotic resistance. We found that resistance evolvability was constrained in some backgrounds, but not in others.
Here, we examine whether a strain’s genetic background also affects the genomic evolution of resistance. Do lineages founded by different genotypes take similar or divergent mutational paths to achieve their evolved resistance states?
To address this question, we sequenced the complete genomes of resistant clones that were isolated during our previous study. We first validated our approach by examining genomic specificity with respect to antibiotic treatment.
Resistant lines evolved within the same treatment had, on average, more mutational targets in common, as expected. And mutations in particular genes were significantly associated with each drug.
Similarly, replicate lines evolved from the same parental genotype had more mutational targets in common than replicate lines evolved from different genotypes. This result implies that genetic background can alter genotypic paths to resistance, too! #ContingencyMatters
There are more cool results in the manuscript! This work was done in collaboration with a fantastic team: @amoeba_hugs @gravesjl55 @barricklab @RELenski
It's been a pleasure to work with them :)
Let us know what you think!
It's been a pleasure to work with them :)
Let us know what you think!
