Speaker
Description
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is commonly framed as a genetic response to drug exposure, yet resistance reliably emerges from the ecological and spatial contexts in which microbes live. A growing body of theory and experiment suggests that competition can slow or even prevent the emergence of AMR, motivating intervention strategies that seek to enhance competitive interactions in clinical, agricultural, and environmental settings. However, our understanding of when and how competition could constrain resistance remains limited. Here, we develop a cross‑scale mathematical framework linking genetic costs of resistance to population‑level competition and landscape‑scale spatial structure. Using a classical growth–efficiency trade‑off from ecological theory, we examine competition between drug‑sensitive and drug‑resistant strains in which increasing resistance incurs a cost in reduced growth rate or resource efficiency. We ask how anthropogenic land‑use change, particularly spatial and environmental homogenization, alters the ecological conditions under which these strains compete. By embedding AMR within a broader ecological theory of resource competition and life‑history trade‑offs, this work reframes resistance as an emergent property of coupled ecological and evolutionary dynamics rather than a purely pharmacological phenomenon. More broadly, the framework helps identify general principles governing when and why resistance genes emerge, persist, and spread.
