Eco-evolutionary dynamics and environmental detoxification jointly shape bacterial community response to antibiotic perturbation.

Prior antibiotic resistance evolution and environmental priming jointly buffer bacterial community composition against ampicillin pulses, with resistance increasing by up to 50%.

• Why it matters: Understanding how ecological, evolutionary, and environmental factors influence microbial responses to antibiotics is crucial for managing resistance and maintaining diversity in microbial communities.
• What they did: The study used a 23-species bacterial community, applying sequential ampicillin pulses with pre-exposure and evolved resistance in individual species, to examine community dynamics and gene expression changes.
• The result: Evolved resistance and priming shifted community composition toward resistant taxa, reduced change during disturbance, and enhanced detoxification, but resistance also limited diversity recovery, highlighting a resistance-diversity trade-off.