SARCOM · Selection for antimicrobial resistance in a complex community context
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2017-12-01 → 2019-11-30
- EU contribution
- €183,455
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-ST
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Selection for antimicrobial resistance in a complex community context
A predicted 10 million human deaths per year by 2050 can be attributed to bacteria that evolved the ability to withstand antibiotics. With the increase in antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in a wide range of pathogens traditional antibiotic treatment is losing effectiveness. AMR is now recognized by the WHO as one of the major human health threats our society is facing, and thus combatting AMR is a key strategic priority for EU-wide research funding. To successfully mitigate the spread of AMR it is thus crucial to understand under which conditions, here mainly which concentrations of antibiotics, AMR is positively selected for by giving the bacterial host a growth advantage. The majority of experimental work trying to identify these conditions has looked at selection in single species and hence not explicitly considered a crucial feature of the lifestyle of bacteria: microbes are typically embedded within complex communities of many interacting, diverse bacterial species. This is always the case within human and animal microbiomes, in which antibiotics are most likely applied. Consequently it remains difficult to assess risks in real world scenarios by exclusively using results from single strain laboratory experiments that do not consider bacterial interactions. During this fellowship my aim was to overcome this problem by investigating how being embedded in a complex, natural microbial community of many bacterial species changes the spread of and selection for AMR in comparison to single strain lab experiments. I was finally able to conclude that selection for antimicrobial resistance is indeed reduced when other community members are present, since these community members can interact with both the resistant as well as the susceptible strain. In addition I showed that not only antibiotics, but also other factors, such as the ubiquitous environmental contaminants, heavy metals and microplastics, contribute to the spread of AMR in bacterial communities.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Increased antibiotic resistance (AMR) in a wide range of human pathogens is a growing public health threat, and the World Health Organization (WHO) forecasts a post-antibiotic era for the 21st century (WHO, 2014). The evolution of AMR in bacteria is determined by both the acquisition of resistance through horizontal gene transfer or chromosomal mutation and by the way resistance affects the competitive ability of a microbe in the presence and absence of antibiotics. The majority of research on selection for AMR to date has focused on detailed in vitro studies of selection for AMR in specific bacterial clones. More significantly, no studies to date have explicitly investigated the implication of being embedded in a complex community for the evolution of AMR. Therefore, in the proposed research I aim to use a multidisciplinary approach by for the first time combining the precision of in vitro experimental evolution experiments with the high resolution of molecular biology to study the evolution and spread of AMR in complex community contexts.The proposed project will allow me to complement my strong background in molecular biology and microbial ecology with evolutionary microbiology and novel bioinformatic approaches. Being situated in one of the most prominent microbial ecology and evolution laboratories worldwide, based at the Biosciences Department at the University of Exeter will be crucial for my personal development in becoming an independent European researcher. The University of Exeter provides an EU accredited program for academic training and personal career development.The proposed research will moreover provide ample opportunities to instigate and be involved in internal and international collaboration with world-leading researchers in diverse research fields.Furthermore, I aim to raise public awareness to the threat AMR bacteria possess to human health and involve the public in mitigation strategies to avoid the spread of AMR genes.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- THE UNIVERSITY OF EXETER · ExeterCoordinatorUnited Kingdom
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union