Open AccessIncreased survival of experimentally evolved antimicrobial peptide‐resistant Staphylococcus aureus in an animal host
Author(s) -
Dobson Adam J.,
Purves Joanne,
Rolff Jens
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
evolutionary applications
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.776
H-Index - 68
ISSN - 1752-4571
DOI - 10.1111/eva.12184
Subject(s) - biology , antimicrobial , antibiotics , antibiotic resistance , microbiology and biotechnology , bacteria , immune system , staphylococcus aureus , effector , antimicrobial peptides , virulence , population , immunity , in vivo , immunology , genetics , gene , demography , sociology
Antimicrobial peptides ( AMP s) have been proposed as new class of antimicrobial drugs, following the increasing prevalence of bacteria resistant to antibiotics. Synthetic AMP s are functional analogues of highly evolutionarily conserved immune effectors in animals and plants, produced in response to microbial infection. Therefore, the proposed therapeutic use of AMP s bears the risk of ‘arming the enemy’: bacteria that evolve resistance to AMP s may be cross‐resistant to immune effectors ( AMP s) in their hosts. We used a panel of populations of Staphylococcus aureus that were experimentally selected for resistance to a suite of individual AMP s and antibiotics to investigate the ‘arming the enemy’ hypothesis. We tested whether the selected strains showed higher survival in an insect model ( Tenebrio molitor) and cross‐resistance against other antimicrobials in vitro . A population selected for resistance to the antimicrobial peptide iseganan showed increased in vivo survival, but was not more virulent. We suggest that increased survival of AMP ‐resistant bacteria almost certainly poses problems to immune‐compromised hosts.