ArticleMolecular ecology2016
Interpreting phenotypic antibiotic tolerance and persister cells as evolution via epigenetic inheritance.
Article in Molecular ecology, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 40 citations in OpenAlex.
- Emerging threats and zoonotic implications of antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus spp. in domesticated cats: a review.Antonie van Leeuwenhoek · 2026Review
- Two Worlds, One Battle: How Bacteria and Malignancies Converge on Drug Resistance.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Identification of a novel gene inAntimicrobial agents and chemotherapy · 2026Article
- Deciphering meropenem persistence inAntimicrobial agents and chemotherapy · 2025Article
- Phenotypic heterogeneity in bacteria: the rise of antibiotic persistence, clinical implications, and therapeutic opportunities.Archives of microbiology · 2024Review
- Antimicrobial resistance in the wild: Insights from epigenetics.Evolutionary applications · 2024Review
- Contributions of transcriptional noise to leukaemia evolution: KAT2A as a case-study.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Review
- Collective behavior and nongenetic inheritance allow bacterial populations to adapt to changing environments.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- Epigenetic-Mediated Antimicrobial Resistance: Host versus Pathogen Epigenetic Alterations.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Multiple Novel Traits without Immediate Benefits Originate in Bacteria Evolving on Single Antibiotics.Molecular biology and evolution · 2022Article
- Evolutionary Pathways and Trajectories in Antibiotic Resistance.Clinical microbiology reviews · 2021Article
- Clinical epigenetics and multidrug-resistant bacterial infections: host remodelling in critical illness.Epigenetics · 2020Review
- Chromatin Structure and Drug Resistance inJournal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Review
- Antibiotic Resistance and Epigenetics: More to It than Meets the Eye.Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy · 2020Review
- Adaptive Metabolism in Staphylococci: Survival and Persistence in Environmental and Clinical Settings.Journal of pathogens · 2018Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Epigenetic inheritance is the transmission of nongenetic material such as gene expression levels, RNA and other biomolecules from parents to offspring. There is a growing realization that such forms of inheritance can play an important role in evolution. Bacteria represent a prime example of epigenetic inheritance because a large array of cellular components is transmitted to offspring, in addition to genetic material. Interestingly, there is an extensive and growing empirical literature showing that many bacteria can form 'persister' cells that are phenotypically resistant or tolerant to antibiotics, but most of these results are not interpreted within the context of epigenetic inheritance. Instead, persister cells are usually viewed as a genetically encoded bet-hedging strategy that has evolved in response to a fluctuating environment. Here I show, using a relatively simple model, that many of these empirical findings can be more simply understood as arising from a combination of epigenetic inheritance and cellular noise. I therefore suggest that phenotypic drug tolerance in bacteria might represent one of the best-studied examples of evolution under epigenetic inheritance.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.