Sivan Pearl Mizrahi

MIT

Collaborators: Akshit Goyal, MIT; Jeff Gore MIT

Title: Community interactions drive the evolution of antibiotic tolerance in bacteria

Short Abstract:  Bacteria are known to evolve to evade antibiotic stress. As most bacteria reside in multi-species communities, we thrive to understand how ecological interactions shape evolution under antibiotic exposure. Studying a community composed of susceptible strain that is protected by a resistant strain under antibiotic stress, we found the susceptible strain evolved tolerance by slow growth. We developed a mathematical model that showed such tolerance can be beneficial when the protective interactions are weak and successfully predicted it would be detrimental when interactions are strong, highlighting the importance of ecological interactions in the evolution of antibiotic tolerance.

Link to Full Abstract: Pearl_Sivan

Contact: sivanp@mit.edu