Articles on the evolution of antibiotic resistance, historical contingency, collateral sensitivity, and the design and implementation of an evolutionary bioreactor.
Google Scholar, as of July 1, 2026
Historical contingency
Card K.J., LaBar T., Gomez J.B., Lenski R.E.
PLoS Biology 17, e3000397 (2019).
After decades of evolving without antibiotics, replicate E. coli lines differed in how readily they could evolve resistance, providing early evidence that a population's history constrains its future adaptability.
Fitness costs
Card K.J., Jordan J.A., Lenski R.E.
Evolution 75, 1230–1238 (2021).
The fitness cost of a tetracycline-resistance mutation depended idiosyncratically on the genome in which it arose, a complication for strategies that assume resistance always carries a predictable price.
Genetic background
Card K.J., Thomas M., Graves J.L., Barrick J.E., Lenski R.E.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118, e2016886118 (2021).
Identical selection drove different E. coli backgrounds down different mutational routes to resistance, showing that genetic history shapes not just whether resistance evolves, but which genes carry it.
Open tools
Gopalakrishnan V.*, Crozier D.*, Card K.J.*, Krishnan N.P., McClure E., Pelesko J., Williamson D.F.K., Webster N., Nichol D., Mandal S., Bonomo R.A., Scott J.G.
eLife 11, e83067 (2022).
A low-cost, open-source bioreactor that makes continuous experimental evolution affordable and reproducible.
Collateral sensitivity
Card K.J.*, Crozier D.*, Durmaz A., Gray J., Creary J., Stocks A., Maltas J., Bonomo R.A., Burke Z.D.C., Scott J.G.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 122, e2507962122 (2025).
Staphylococcus aureus evolved vancomycin resistance by at least two mutually exclusive genetic routes, each leaving a distinct, predictable pattern of collateral sensitivity to second-line drugs. This work introduces the Collateral Response Score.
Card K.J.*, Crozier D.*, Durmaz A., Gray J., Creary J., Stocks A., Maltas J., Bonomo R.A., Burke Z.D.C., Scott J.G.
Evolution under vancomycin selection drives divergent collateral sensitivity patterns in Staphylococcus aureus.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 122, e2507962122 (2025). · DOI
Gopalakrishnan V.*, Crozier D.*, Card K.J.*, Krishnan N.P., McClure E., Pelesko J., Williamson D.F.K., Webster N., Nichol D., Mandal S., Bonomo R.A., Scott J.G.
Science Forum: A low-cost, open-source evolutionary bioreactor and its educational use.
eLife 11, e83067 (2022). · DOI
Jordan J.A., Lenski R.E., Card K.J.
Idiosyncratic fitness costs of ampicillin-resistant mutants derived from a long-term experiment with Escherichia coli.
Antibiotics 11, 347 (2022). · DOI
Weaver D.T., McElvany B.D., Gopalakrishnan V., Card K.J., Crozier D., Dhawan A., Dinh M.N., Dolson E., Farrokhian N., Hitomi M., Ho E., Jagdish T., King E.S., Cadnum J.F., Donskey C.J., Krishnan N., Kuzmin G., Li J., Maltas J., Mo J., Pelesko J., Scarborough J.A., Sedor G., Tian E., An G.C., Diehl S., Scott J.G.
UV decontamination of personal protective equipment with idle laboratory biosafety cabinets during the COVID-19 pandemic.
PLoS One 16, e0241734 (2021). · DOI
Card K.J., Jordan J.A., Lenski R.E.
Idiosyncratic variation in the fitness costs of tetracycline-resistance mutations in Escherichia coli.
Evolution 75, 1230–1238 (2021). · DOI
Card K.J., Thomas M., Graves J.L., Barrick J.E., Lenski R.E.
Genomic evolution of antibiotic resistance is contingent on genetic background following a long-term experiment with Escherichia coli.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118, e2016886118 (2021). · DOI
Card K.J., LaBar T., Gomez J.B., Lenski R.E.
Historical contingency in the evolution of antibiotic resistance after decades of relaxed selection.
PLoS Biology 17, e3000397 (2019). · DOI
Lenski R.E., Wiser M.J., Blount Z.D., Nahum J.R., Morris J.J., Zaman L., Turner C.B., Wade B.D., Maddamsetti R., Burmeister A.R., Baird E.J., Bundy J., Grant N.A., Card K.J., Rowles M., Weatherspoon K., Papoulis S.E., Sullivan R., Clark C., Mulka J.S., Hajela N.
Sustained fitness gains and variability in fitness trajectories in the long-term evolution experiment with Escherichia coli.
Proceedings of the Royal Society London B 282, 20152292 (2015). · DOI
Ji Z., Card K.J., Dazzo F.B.
CMEIAS JFrad: A digital computing tool to discriminate the fractal geometry of landscape architectures and spatial patterns of individual cells in microbial biofilms.
Microbial Ecology 69, 710–720 (2015). · DOI
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