ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2016
Antibiotic treatment enhances the genome-wide mutation rate of target cells.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 115 papers.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
115 citing papers in PubMed, 218 citations in OpenAlex.
- Chromosomal instability in cancer: sources, consequences and new therapeutic opportunities.Signal transduction and targeted therapy · 2026Review
- Modelling the role of the microbiome in antimicrobial resistance across scales.Nature microbiology · 2026Review
- Mutation-biased adaptation is consequential even in large bacterial populations.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Extended sequence context shapes mutational bias inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- The unique role ofmBio · 2026Article
- A record-setting mitogenome in the holoparasitic plant Balanophora yakushimensis accompanied by exceptional loss of organellar DNA repair and recombination genes.BMC biology · 2025Article
- The negligible mutagenic effects of norfloxacin on the genome of the fission yeastMicrobiology spectrum · 2025Article
- The diverse phenotypic and mutational landscape induced by fluoroquinolone treatment.mSystems · 2025Article
- Drug-induced tolerant persisters in tumor: mechanism, vulnerability and perspective implication for clinical treatment.Molecular cancer · 2025Review
- Antibiotic-recalcitrant Salmonella during infection.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2025Review
- Low Mutation Rate and Atypical Mutation Spectrum in Prasinoderma coloniale: Insights From an Early Diverging Green Lineage.Genome biology and evolution · 2025Article
- The impact of aztreonam-clavulanic acid exposure on gene expression and mutant selection using a multidrug-resistantMicrobiology spectrum · 2025Article
- Adaptive Resistance ofMicroorganisms · 2025Article
- Insights into antibiotic resistance promoted by quinolone exposure.Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy · 2025Article
- Genetic determinants of silver nanoparticle resistance and the impact of gamma irradiation on nanoparticle stability.BMC microbiology · 2025Article
- The genome-wide de novo mutations and icaA gene expression levels in Staphylococcus aureus under long-term subinhibitory and semisubinhibitory nisin exposure.FEMS microbiology letters · 2025Article
- From Petri Dishes to Patients to Populations: Scales and Evolutionary Mechanisms Driving Antibiotic Resistance.Annual review of microbiology · 2024Review
- A new era of mutation rate analyses: Concepts and methods.Zoological research · 2024Review
- Spontaneous mutations and mutational responses to penicillin treatment in the bacterial pathogenMarine life science & technology · 2024Article
- Article
55 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Although it is well known that microbial populations can respond adaptively to challenges from antibiotics, empirical difficulties in distinguishing the roles of de novo mutation and natural selection have left several issues unresolved. Here, we explore the mutational properties of Escherichia coli exposed to long-term sublethal levels of the antibiotic norfloxacin, using a mutation accumulation design combined with whole-genome sequencing of replicate lines. The genome-wide mutation rate significantly increases with norfloxacin concentration. This response is associated with enhanced expression of error-prone DNA polymerases and may also involve indirect effects of norfloxacin on DNA mismatch and oxidative-damage repair. Moreover, we find that acquisition of antibiotic resistance can be enhanced solely by accelerated mutagenesis, i.e., without direct involvement of selection. Our results suggest that antibiotics may generally enhance the mutation rates of target cells, thereby accelerating the rate of adaptation not only to the antibiotic itself but to additional challenges faced by invasive pathogens.
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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.