Evolution Under Antibiotic Treatments: Interplay Between Antibiotic Persistence, Tolerance, and Resistance

Abstract

In this chapter, we describe the experimental evolution of antibiotic tolerance and persistence under antibiotic treatments and how these phenomena can speed up the subsequent evolution of resistance. The first two parts are dedicated to defining the difference between antibiotic resistance, tolerance, and persistence with qualitative definitions and quantitative metrics. The third part describes experimental observations of the evolution of tolerance and persistence under antibiotic treatments. The fourth part shows that tolerance and persistence speed up the evolution of antibiotic resistance. In each part, mathematical subsections can be skipped by the reader without losing the qualitative understanding of the effects.