Inhibiting bacterial cooperation is an evolutionarily robust anti-biofilm strategy

122Citations
Citations of this article
277Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.

This article is free to access.

Abstract

Bacteria commonly form dense biofilms encased in extracellular polymeric substances (EPS). Biofilms are often extremely tolerant to antimicrobials but their reliance on shared EPS may also be a weakness as social evolution theory predicts that inhibiting shared traits can select against resistance. Here we show that EPS of Salmonella biofilms is a cooperative trait whose benefit is shared among cells, and that EPS inhibition reduces both cell attachment and antimicrobial tolerance. We then compare an EPS inhibitor to conventional antimicrobials in an evolutionary experiment. While resistance against conventional antimicrobials rapidly evolves, we see no evolution of resistance to EPS inhibition. We further show that a resistant strain is outcompeted by a susceptible strain under EPS inhibitor treatment, explaining why resistance does not evolve. Our work suggests that targeting cooperative traits is a viable solution to the problem of antimicrobial resistance.

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

Dieltjens, L., Appermans, K., Lissens, M., Lories, B., Kim, W., Van der Eycken, E. V., … Steenackers, H. P. (2020). Inhibiting bacterial cooperation is an evolutionarily robust anti-biofilm strategy. Nature Communications, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13660-x

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free