April 29, 2021 · Talk
Video: The effect of population size, mutation rate, and genetic background on the evolution of antibiotic resistance
Club EvMed invited several postdoctoral researchers, including me, to present our research as part of a special Postdoc Spotlight.
The evolution of antibiotic resistance is a serious and growing problem. The ability to predict a pathogen’s capacity to evolve resistance is therefore a critical public-health goal. In previous work, we found that differences between genetic backgrounds can sometimes lead to unpredictable responses in phenotypic resistance and influence its genetic basis by channeling evolution down particular mutational paths. However, it is still not clear how background interacts with other factors, including population size and mutation rate to influence resistance evolution. To address this issue, we are combining theory with an experimental examination of a time-series of E. coli strains isolated from a population that evolved increases in both population size and mutation rate during a long-term evolution experiment (LTEE).