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Antibiotic Resistance pp 13–30Cite as

The Origins of Antibiotic Resistance

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Part of the book series: Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology ((HEP,volume 211))

Abstract

Antibiotics remain one of our most important pharmacological tools for the control of infectious disease. However, unlike most other drugs, the use of antibiotics selects for resistant organisms and erodes their clinical utility. Resistance can emerge within populations of bacteria by mutation and be retained by subsequent selection or by the acquisition of resistance elements laterally from other organisms. The source of these resistance genes is only now being understood. The evidence supports a large bacterial resistome—the collection of all resistance genes and their precursors in both pathogenic and nonpathogenic bacteria. These genes have arisen by various means including self-protection in the case of antibiotic producers, transport of small molecules for various reasons including nutrition and detoxification of noxious chemicals, and to accomplish other goals, such as metabolism, and demonstrate serendipitous selectivity for antibiotics. Regardless of their origins, resistance genes can rapidly move through bacterial populations and emerge in pathogenic bacteria. Understanding the processes that contribute to the evolution and selection of resistance is essential to mange current stocks of antibiotics and develop new ones.

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Acknowledgements

Research in the author’s lab on antibiotic resistance is supported by a Canada Research Chair, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

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  1. Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada, L8N 3Z5

    Gerard D. Wright

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Correspondence to Gerard D. Wright .

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  1. , Div of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, St. George's, University of London, Cranmer Terrace, London, SW17 0RE, United Kingdom

    Anthony R.M. Coates

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Wright, G.D. (2012). The Origins of Antibiotic Resistance. In: Coates, A. (eds) Antibiotic Resistance. Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology, vol 211. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28951-4_2

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