RESUMEN
Multidrug antibiotic resistance is an urgent public health concern. Multiple strategies have been suggested to alleviate this problem, including the use of antibiotic combinations and cyclic therapies. We examine how adaptation to (1) combinations of drugs affects resistance to individual drugs, and to (2) individual drugs alters responses to drug combinations. To evaluate this, we evolved multiple strains of drug resistant Staphylococcus epidermidis in the lab. We show that evolving resistance to four highly synergistic combinations does not result in cross-resistance to all of their components. Likewise, prior resistance to one antibiotic in a combination does not guarantee survival when exposed to the combination. We also identify four 3-step and four 2-step treatments that inhibit bacterial growth and confer collateral sensitivity with each step, impeding the development of multidrug resistance. This study highlights the importance of considering higher-order drug combinations in sequential therapies and how antibiotic interactions can influence the evolutionary trajectory of bacterial populations.
RESUMEN
The rapid increase of multi-drug resistant bacteria has led to a greater emphasis on multi-drug combination treatments. However, some combinations can be suppressive-that is, bacteria grow faster in some drug combinations than when treated with a single drug. Typically, when studying interactions, the overall effect of the combination is only compared with the single-drug effects. However, doing so could miss "hidden" cases of suppression, which occur when the highest order is suppressive compared with a lower-order combination but not to a single drug. We examined an extensive dataset of 5-drug combinations and all lower-order-single, 2-, 3-, and 4-drug-combinations. We found that a majority of all combinations-54%-contain hidden suppression. Examining hidden interactions is critical to understanding the architecture of higher-order interactions and can substantially affect our understanding and predictions of the evolution of antibiotic resistance under multi-drug treatments.
RESUMEN
Undaria pinnatifida is known as unwanted organism in New Zealand. However, Wakame is a traditional food made of U. pinnatifida, which is now cultured extensively in East Asia. Therefore, it is important to examine this introduced alga as a potential source of dietary protein for human consumption in New Zealand. This study determined total nitrogen content and amino acid profile of New Zealand U. pinnatifida harvested from the Marlborough Sounds on a monthly basis from June to November 2011. Total average nitrogen content and crude protein content was 21.02 mg/g dry weight and 13.1% of dry weight, respectively. The three most abundant amino acids that contributed to flavour (glutamic acid, aspartic acid and alanine) were present and the most abundant essential amino acids were arginine, leucine, lysine and valine. The results showed that the amino acid content in blades from the exposed farm was significantly higher (P < 0.05) than the others. Sporophyll maturation of U. pinnatifida in New Zealand influenced protein content and amino acid composition. Sporophyll, considered as a waste product by many, was found to be a potentially good source of protein.