Effect of antibiotics on bacterial populations: a multi-hierarchical selection process

Abstract

Antibiotics have been widely used for a number of decades for human therapy and farming production. Since a high percentage of antibiotics are discharged from the human or animal body without degradation, this means that different habitats, from the human body to river water or soils, are polluted with antibiotics. In this situation, it is expected that the variable concentration of this type of microbial inhibitor present in different ecosystems may affect the structure and the productivity of the microbiota colonizing such habitats. This effect can occur at different levels, including changes in the overall structure of the population, selection of resistant organisms, or alterations in bacterial physiology. In this review, I discuss the available information on how the presence of antibiotics may alter the microbiota and the consequences of such alterations for human health and for the activity of microbiota from different habitats.

Dysbiosis and early mortality in zebrafish larvae exposed to subclinical concentrations of streptomycin

“…Antibiotic pollution in aquatic environments can also impact on different trophic levels in local ecosystems. For one, antibiotics can alter local microbial populations naturally present in sediments or water tables, disrupting phylogenetic structuration and nutrient cycling (Ding and He 2010 ; Martínez 2017 ; Grenni, Ancona and Barra Caracciolo 2018 ). Antibiotics inhibiting bacterial protein synthesis such as streptomycin can also exhibit toxic effects against unicellular algae, an important driver of aquatic ecosystem productivity (Fu et al.…”

Biomedical Applications of Polyhydroxyalkanoates

“…At low concentration, these antibiotics have been reported to influence the growth of the animals-livestock and aquaculture [28]. As the incorporation of antibiotic in a consistent manner can be a risky affair and the gastrointestinal microflora is likely to develop resistance [29,30]. One has to ensure that there is complete elimination of antibiotic from the digestive system of the animal.…”

Bacteria From the Multi-Contaminated Tinto River Estuary (SW, Spain) Show High Multi-Resistance to Antibiotics and Point to Paenibacillus spp. as Antibiotic-Resistance-Dissemination Players

“…This function was demonstrated only in a few cases (Currie et al, 1999;Neeno-Eckwall et al, 2001;Haas and Défago, 2005). Antibiotic concentrations in nature may not be enough for this purpose (Fajardo et al, 2009), while low concentrations have pleiotropic effects that are not related to competition (Davies et al, 2006;Linares et al, 2006;Yim et al, 2007;Fajardo and Martinez, 2008;Sengupta et al, 2013;Andersson and Hughes, 2014;Goneau et al, 2015;Martínez, 2017;Xiong et al, 2017). However, low individual concentrations of a cocktail of antibiotics could have a combined effect [reviewed by Danner et al (2019)].…”