Articles of Significant Interest in This Issue

Abstract

Antibiotics and the Evolution of Quorum Sensing in Pseudomonas aeruginosa Antibiotic effects on growth and adaptation can have important consequences on polymicrobial communities. Abisado et al. (e00029-21) investigated the role of the antibiotic tobramycin in cooperating populations of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. They show that in these populations, tobramycin suppresses the emergence of “cheaters,” individuals that exploit cooperator-produced shared products without incurring the cost of production. Tobramycin directly blocks cheater growth but also selects for mutations in cooperators that enhance production of a toxin that polices cheaters. This work provides new insight into understanding the different ways, both unexpected and expected, by which antibiotics might influence the evolution of microbial communities.