Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Nat Chem Biol. 2010 Feb;6(2):105-7. doi: 10.1038/nchembio.289. Epub 2010 Jan 10.
Antibiotics are often unstable and can decay into various compounds with potential biological activities. We found that as tetracycline degrades, the competitive advantage conferred to bacteria by resistance not only diminishes but actually reverses to become a prolonged disadvantage due to the activities of more stable degradation products. Tetracycline decay can lead to net selection against resistance, which may help explain the puzzling coexistence of sensitive and resistant strains in natural environments.
抗生素通常不稳定，会分解为具有潜在生物活性的各种化合物。我们发现，随着四环素的降解，耐药性赋予细菌的竞争优势不仅减弱，实际上还会因为更稳定的降解产物的作用而变成长期劣势。四环素的降解会导致对耐药性的净选择，这可能有助于解释在自然环境中敏感和耐药菌株共存的令人费解的现象。
