Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 19, 2026

Testing the Role of Multicopy Plasmids in the Evolution of Antibiotic Resistance
09:00

Testing the Role of Multicopy Plasmids in the Evolution of Antibiotic Resistance

Published on: May 2, 2018

Antimicrobials as promoters of genetic variation

Jesús Blázquez1, Alejandro Couce, Jerónimo Rodríguez-Beltrán

  • 1Centro Nacional de Biotecnología, Madrid, Spain. blazquez@cnb.csic.es

Current Opinion in Microbiology
|August 15, 2012
PubMed

Insights

Antibiotics, even at low doses, can increase bacterial genetic variation and promote antibiotic resistance. This occurs through mutation and oxidative stress, accelerating the emergence of drug-resistant bacteria.

Area of Science:

  • Microbiology
  • Genetics
  • Pharmacology

Background:

  • Antibiotic resistance is a major global health threat.
  • Mechanisms of resistance include selection of resistant variants and horizontal gene transfer.
  • The role of antibiotics themselves in driving resistance is increasingly recognized.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To review and discuss recent advances in understanding how antibiotics induce genetic variation.
  • To explore the mechanisms by which antibiotics promote antibiotic resistance.
  • To highlight the relevance of these findings in the context of emerging drug resistance.

Main Methods:

  • Literature review of recent scientific publications.
  • Analysis of studies investigating antibiotic-induced mutagenesis.
  • Discussion of pathways involving oxidative stress, SOS response, and DNA damage.

Main Results:

  • Antibiotics, particularly at sub-lethal concentrations, act as mutagens.
  • Mechanisms include increased free radicals, oxidative stress, SOS response activation, and direct DNA damage.
  • Environmental factors can potentiate the mutagenic effects of antibiotics.

Conclusions:

  • Antibiotics actively contribute to the emergence of antibiotic resistance by increasing bacterial genetic variation.
  • Understanding these mechanisms is crucial for developing strategies to combat antibiotic resistance.
  • Further research is needed to fully elucidate the interplay between antibiotics, environmental factors, and resistance development.

More Related Videos

Monitoring Intraspecies Competition in a Bacterial Cell Population by Cocultivation of Fluorescently Labelled Strains06:45

Monitoring Intraspecies Competition in a Bacterial Cell Population by Cocultivation of Fluorescently Labelled Strains

Published on: January 18, 2014

Generating Transposon Insertion Libraries in Gram-Negative Bacteria for High-Throughput Sequencing08:19

Generating Transposon Insertion Libraries in Gram-Negative Bacteria for High-Throughput Sequencing

Published on: July 7, 2020

Related Concept Videos

Antibiotic Selection00:57

Antibiotic Selection

Overview
Mutations in Microorganisms01:18

Mutations in Microorganisms

Mutations are heritable changes in an organism’s genome involving alterations in the base sequence of DNA or RNA. These changes can influence cellular processes and phenotypic traits, potentially transforming the unaltered wild type into a mutant form. Such changes, termed forward mutations, are pivotal in shaping the genetic diversity of organisms.RNA viruses exhibit the highest mutation rates due to the absence of robust proofreading mechanisms during genome replication. In contrast,...
Gene Regulation in Microbial Communities: Quorum Sensing01:28

Gene Regulation in Microbial Communities: Quorum Sensing

Quorum sensing is a mechanism of bacterial communication that enables coordinated gene expression in response to changes in population density. This facilitates collective behaviors that enhance survival, resource acquisition, and ecological adaptation. This process relies on small signaling molecules called autoinducers that accumulate as bacterial populations grow. When a critical threshold concentration of autoinducers is reached, bacterial cells collectively modify gene expression,...
Transduction01:16

Transduction

Among the three main modes of HGT—transformation, conjugation, and transduction—transduction is unique in that it is mediated by bacteriophages, or bacterial viruses.Transduction occurs in two ways. Generalized transduction occurs during the lytic cycle of a bacteriophage infection. In this process, bacteriophages infect bacterial cells, replicate within them, and ultimately cause cell lysis, releasing newly assembled virions. Occasionally, random fragments of the bacterial genome are...
Evolutionary Processes in Microbes01:26

Evolutionary Processes in Microbes

Microbial evolution occurs rapidly due to short generation times and a variety of genetic processes, including horizontal gene transfer, mutation, recombination, and genetic drift. These mechanisms collectively enable microbes to adapt swiftly to changing environments.Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) allows genes to move between different species and occurs through three main mechanisms: conjugation, transformation, and transduction. Conjugation involves direct cell-to-cell contact for DNA...
Development of Antibiotic Resistance01:30

Development of Antibiotic Resistance

Antibiotic resistance is a major public health concern that arises when bacteria evolve mechanisms to withstand the effects of antibiotic treatments. This resistance can be intrinsic, acquired through genetic mutations, or transferred between bacteria via horizontal gene transfer. The development of antibiotic resistance poses significant challenges in treating bacterial infections and necessitates ongoing research to develop new therapeutic strategies.Intrinsic resistance occurs when bacterial...