ArticleNature communications2024
The evolution of heteroresistance via small colony variants in Escherichia coli following long term exposure to bacteriostatic antibiotics.
Article in Nature communications, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed.
- Macrolide antibiotic action, resistance, and tolerance, and approaches to improve their activity against Gram-negative bacteria.The Journal of antibiotics · 2026Review
- Bacterial heteroresistance mechanisms, dynamics, and emerging diagnostic approaches.Bioscience reports · 2026Review
- Bacteriophage Heteroresistance as a Cause of Treatment Failure in Urinary Tract Infections.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Structure-Activity Relationship Study of Antimicrobial Peptide with Cross-Kingdom Activity.Biochemistry · 2026Article
- Rapid Optical Nanomotion-Based Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing of Kombucha-Associated Acetic Acid Bacteria andFoods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Oxidative Treatment for Reducing Persistent Populations of Escherichia coli Under Amoxicillin and Gentamicin Pressure.Journal of biophotonics · 2026Article
- Small colony variants and cefiderocol resistance in clinicalFrontiers in microbiology · 2026Article
- Principles of bacteriostatic and bactericidal antibiotics at subinhibitory concentrations.mBio · 2025Article
- Article
- Heteroresistance is associated with mutations during low concentration of tigecycline therapy in multiple-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae.Annals of clinical microbiology and antimicrobials · 2025Article
- Flying under the radar: vancomycin heteroresistance inASM case reports · 2025Article
- Reply to Spellberg et al., "Static vs cidal: it's not complex; it's simply incorrect".Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy · 2025Article
- Antechodynamics and Antechokinetics: Dynamics and Kinetics of Antibiotic Resistance Biomolecules.Biomolecules · 2025Review
- Antibiotic killing of drug-induced bacteriostatic cells.Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy · 2025Article
- A matched pilot cohort study of intravenous omadacycline in the treatment of severe pneumonia associated with carbapenem-resistantFrontiers in microbiology · 2025Article
- Antibiotic killing of drug-induced bacteriostatic cells.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Bacterial persisters: molecular mechanisms and therapeutic development.Signal transduction and targeted therapy · 2024Review
- Review
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7 authors.
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Abstract
Traditionally, bacteriostatic antibiotics are agents able to arrest bacterial growth. Despite being traditionally viewed as unable to kill bacterial cells, when they are used clinically the outcome of these drugs is frequently as effective as when a bactericidal drug is used. We explore the dynamics of Escherichia coli after exposure to two ribosome-targeting bacteriostatic antibiotics, chloramphenicol and azithromycin, for thirty days. The results of our experiments provide evidence that bacteria exposed to these drugs replicate, evolve, and generate a sub-population of small colony variants (SCVs) which are resistant to multiple drugs. These SCVs contribute to the evolution of heteroresistance and rapidly revert to a susceptible state once the antibiotic is removed. Stated another way, exposure to bacteriostatic drugs selects for the evolution of heteroresistance in populations previously lacking this trait. More generally, our results question the definition of bacteriostasis as populations exposed to bacteriostatic drugs are replicating despite the lack of net growth.
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