Predictable properties of fitness landscapes induced by adaptational tradeoffs

Abstract
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Abstract

Fitness effects of mutations depend on environmental parameters. For example, mutations that increase fitness of bacteria at high antibiotic concentration often decrease fitness in the absence of antibiotic, exemplifying a tradeoff between adaptation to environmental extremes. We develop a mathematical model for fitness landscapes generated by such tradeoffs, based on experiments that determine the antibiotic dose-response curves of Escherichia coli strains, and previous observations on antibiotic resistance mutations. Our model generates a succession of landscapes with predictable properties as antibiotic concentration is varied. The landscape is nearly smooth at low and high concentrations, but the tradeoff induces a high ruggedness at intermediate antibiotic concentrations. Despite this high ruggedness, however, all the fitness maxima in the landscapes are evolutionarily accessible from the wild type. This implies that selection for antibiotic resistance in multiple mutational steps is relatively facile despite the complexity of the underlying landscape.

Data availability

Experimental data have been deposited in Edinburgh DataShare

The following data sets were generated

1. Waclaw B
2. Direito S
3. Das S
4. Allen R
5. Krug
6. J
(2020) Experimental data for the article Predictable Properties of Fitness Landscapes Induced by Adaptational Tradeoffs
Edinburgh DataShare, 10.7488/ds/2756.

https://datashare.is.ed.ac.uk/handle/10283/3558

The following previously published data sets were used

(2009) Data from: Interplay in the Selection of Fluoroquinolone Resistance and Bacterial Fitness
PLOS Pathogens, 10.1371/journal.ppat.1000541.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1000541

Article and author information

Author details

Suman G Das

Institute for Biological Physics, University of Cologne, Koeln, Germany

For correspondence
sdas3@uni-koeln.de

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Susana OL Direito

School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Bartek Waclaw

School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Rosalind J Allen

School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Joachim Krug

Department of Physics, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany

For correspondence
jkrug@uni-koeln.de

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-2143-6490

Funding

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (CRC 1310)

Joachim Krug

H2020 European Research Council (ERC Consolidator Grant 682237 EVOSTRUC)

Rosalind J Allen

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Copyright

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.