RESEARCH FOCUS

As bacteria evolve under selection, several novel genotypes have the potential to emerge. These may be thought of as alternative solutions to dealing with an environmental pressure. Yet, in real life or in laboratory selections not all potential evolutionary paths are equally successful. The genotypes that are more successful are termed ‘fitter’ than their competitors.

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While ‘fitness’ is a commonly encountered principle in evolutionary biology, its biochemical basis is poorly explored. A convenient system for the study of the biochemistry of fitness is the evolution of resistance to antibiotics in bacteria. Though various mechanisms may confer antibiotic-resistance, some are known to bear large ‘fitness costs’, i.e. in the absence of antibiotic are detrimental to the bacterium.

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Using laboratory selections, genome analysis, biochemical investigations and eventually systems level approaches, we are interested in teasing out the mechanistic basis of fitness costs and relative fitness of drug resistant genotypes. This will shed light on how and why antimicrobial resistance evolves the way it does and possibly throw up strategies to slow it down. Finally, the hope is to extend these ideas to other kinds of selection such as nutrient utilization and non-specific stresses.