Dresden 2014 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik
DY 46: Stochastic Dynamics of Growth Processes in Biological and Social Systems (joint session SOE/BP)
DY 46.5: Vortrag
Freitag, 4. April 2014, 11:00–11:15, GÖR 226
Bacterial population genetics in antibiotic concentration gradients: Accelerated evolution of antibiotic resistance — •Philip Greulich1,2, Bartlomiej Waclaw2, and Rosalind Allen2 — 1Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK — 2School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
The increased emergence of antibiotic resistance poses a major threat to human health nowadays. Evolution of antibiotic resistance occurs by a sequence of mutations (mutational pathway) when bacteria are exposed to the selection pressure of an applied antibiotic. Recent experiments indicate that the spatial distribution of an antibiotic plays an important role for the evolution of antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains. I will present a stochastic model for the population genetics of bacteria growing in different spatial distributions of an antibiotic. This model reveals an intriguing interplay between the mutational pathway and the spatial structure of the drug distribution. It shows that spatial gradients in antibiotic concentrations can strongly accelerate the emergence of resistance when the mutational pathway involves a long sequence of mutants. However, gradients may slow down evolution if the pathway is short or crosses a fitness valley.