Effects of Environment on Compensatory Mutations to Ameliorate Costs of Antibiotic Resistance

Most types of antibiotic resistance impose a biological cost on bacterial fitness. These costs can be compensated, usually without loss of resistance, by second-site mutations during the evolution of the resistant bacteria in an experimental host or in a laboratory medium. Different fitness-compensating mutations were selected depending on whether the bacteria evolved through serial passage in mice or in a laboratory medium. This difference in mutation spectra was caused by either a growth condition–specific formation or selection of the compensated mutants. These results suggest that bacterial evolution to reduce the costs of antibiotic resistance can take different trajectories within and outside a host.