Study shows antibiotic resistance genes persist in E. coli through “genetic capitalism”

Industrial use of antibiotics may cause unusual evolutionary process.

A new study, published in the current issue of the journal Cladistics, analyzes a massive genetic data set involving genomes of 29,255 strains of the bacterium Escherichia coli (E. coli) collected between 1884 and 2018 to examine the evolution of 409 different genes that enable various strains of bacteria to resist various antibiotics. The researchers examined whether the genes that confer antibiotic resistance, once acquired, tended to persist massively in the bacterial lineage — a phenomenon known as “genetic capitalism” — or disappear once they are no longer required for survival, through a normal evolutionary process known as “stabilizing selection.”

Read the Press Release here: https://eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-06/uonc-ssa062920.php

Access the Cladistics Article here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/cla.12421