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On the possible ecological roles of antimicrobials
Author(s) -
Pishchany Gleb,
Kolter Roberto
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
molecular microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.857
H-Index - 247
eISSN - 1365-2958
pISSN - 0950-382X
DOI - 10.1111/mmi.14471
Subject(s) - biology , ecology , antimicrobial , computational biology , microbiology and biotechnology
Abstract The Introduction of antibiotics into the clinical use in the middle of the 20th century had a profound impact on modern medicine and human wellbeing. The contribution of these wonder molecules to public health and science is hard to overestimate. Much research has informed our understanding of antibiotic mechanisms of action and resistance at inhibitory concentrations in the lab and in the clinic. Antibiotics, however, are not a human invention as most of them are either natural products produced by soil microorganisms or semisynthetic derivatives of natural products. Because we use antibiotics to inhibit the bacterial growth, it is generally assumed that growth inhibition is also their primary ecological function in the environment. Nevertheless, multiple studies point to diverse nonlethal effects that are exhibited at lower levels of antibiotics. Here we review accumulating evidence of antibiosis and of alternative functions of antibiotics exhibited at subinhibitory concentrations. We also speculate on how these effects might alter phenotypes, fitness, and community composition of microbes in the context of the environment and suggest directions for future research.

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