Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Research Highlight
  • Published:

Pathogen genetics

Evolutionary dynamics driving drug resistance

Nature Reviews Genetics volume 18, pages 578–579 (2017)Cite this article

Subjects

antibiotic resistance is not required for evolutionary success

MRSA was first reported after the introduction of methicillin in the UK in 1959 and Denmark in 1964; hence, it was thought that methicillin resistance developed as an adaptive response in S. aureus after the first clinical use. Harkins et al. sequenced whole genomes of 188 original bacterial isolates obtained between 1960 and the late 1970s, including eight isolates from the original study that described MRSA in 1961. In addition, the study included 21 lineages isolated between 1964 and 1989 in Denmark, which represent the earliest MRSA detected outside the UK. All lineages were characterized by multi-locus sequence typing (MLST), whereby internal fragments of multiple housekeeping genes are analysed, and the alleles at each of the loci define the allelic profile or sequence type (ST). MLST identified ST250 as the predominant group, from which a single-locus variant, ST247, evolved.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Harkins, C. P. et al. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus emerged long before the introduction of methicillin into clinical practice. Genome Biol. 18, 130 (2017)10.1186/s13059-017-1252-9

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  2. Kallonen, T. et al. Systematic longitudinal survey of invasive Escherichia coli in England demonstrates a stable population structure only transiently disturbed by the emergence of ST131. Genome Res. 27, 1437–1449 (2017)10.1101/gr.216606.116

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Linda Koch
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Related links

Related links

Related links in Nature Research

Hughes, D. & Andersson, D. I. Evolutionary consequences of drug resistance: shared principles across diverse targets and organisms. Nat. Rev. Genet. 16, 459–471 (2015)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Koch, L. Evolutionary dynamics driving drug resistance. Nat Rev Genet 18, 578–579 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg.2017.68

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg.2017.68

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing