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Nguyen ANT, Gorrell R, Kwok T, Connallon T, McDonald MJ. Horizontal gene transfer facilitates the molecular reverse-evolution of antibiotic sensitivity in experimental populations of H. pylori. Nat Ecol Evol 2024; 8:315-324. [PMID: 38177692 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-023-02269-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/14/2023] [Accepted: 11/09/2023] [Indexed: 01/06/2024]
Abstract
Reversing the evolution of traits harmful to humans, such as antimicrobial resistance, is a key ambition of applied evolutionary biology. A major impediment to reverse evolution is the relatively low spontaneous mutation rates that revert evolved genotypes back to their ancestral state. However, the repeated re-introduction of ancestral alleles by horizontal gene transfer (HGT) could make reverse evolution likely. Here we evolve populations of an antibiotic-resistant strain of Helicobacter pylori in growth conditions without antibiotics while introducing an ancestral antibiotic-sensitive allele by HGT. We evaluate reverse evolution using DNA sequencing and find that HGT facilitates the molecular reverse evolution of the antibiotic resistance allele, and that selection for high rates of HGT drives the evolution of increased HGT rates in low-HGT treatment populations. Finally, we use a theoretical model and carry out simulations to infer how the fitness costs of antibiotic resistance, rates of HGT and effects of genetic drift interact to determine the probability and predictability of reverse evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- An N T Nguyen
- School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia
- Centre to Impact AMR, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Rebecca Gorrell
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia
- Department of Microbiology, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia
| | - Terry Kwok
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia
- Department of Microbiology, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia
- Biomedical Discovery Institute, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia
| | - Tim Connallon
- School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia.
| | - Michael J McDonald
- School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia.
- Centre to Impact AMR, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia.
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