Time series analysis of rhythmic bacterial resistance development to antibiotics

The sensitivity data of Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli to a large set of antibiotics have undergone time series procedures of analysis in order to highlight possibly periodical behavior in time. These oscillational patterns have been characterized through the use of FFT and cross-correlational and variance analysis and were proved to be species-specific and drug-independent. S. aureus was shown to have a large period of oscillation (40 months) when compared to E. coli (from 7 to 11 months). A perfect species distinction was only possible through cross correlation. These results may reflect the influence of the local environment, since this finding was not referred to in the literature.