2019/12/29 by Yusuke Himeoka, Namiko Mitarai, Himeoka, Yusuke +1 · 2 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Medicine · Social Sciences · #Evolution and Genetic Dynamics #Mathematical and Theoretical Epidemiology and Ecology Models #Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1912.12682
Prolonged lag time can be induced by starvation contributing to the\nantibiotic tolerance of bacteria. We analyze the optimal lag time to survive\nand grow the iterative and stochastic application of antibiotics. A simple\nmodel shows that the optimal lag time exhibits a discontinuous transition when\nthe severeness of the antibiotic is increased. This suggests the possibility of\nreducing tolerant bacteria by controlled usage of antibiotics application. When\nthe bacterial populations are able to have two phenotypes with different lag\ntimes, the fraction of the second phenotype that has different lag time shows a\ncontinuous transition. We then present a generic framework to investigate the\noptimal lag time distribution for total population fitness for a given\ndistribution of the antibiotic application duration. The obtained optimal\ndistributions have multiple peaks for a wide range of the antibiotic\napplication duration distributions, including the case where the latter is\nmonotonically decreasing. The analysis supports the advantage in evolving\nmultiple, possibly discrete phenotypes in lag time for bacterial long-term\nfitness.\n