Development of antibiotic resistance reveals diverse evolutionary pathways to face the complex and dynamic environment of a long-term treated patient

ABSTRACT Antibiotic resistance development has been studied using approaches that range from laboratory experimental evolution, surveillance and epidemiology, to clinical isolate sequencing. However, evolutionary trajectories depend on the environment in which selection takes place, compelling to address evolutionary analyses in antibiotic-treated patients, to embrace the whole inherent environmental complexities as well as their dynamics over time. Herein, we address the complexity of the bacterial adaptive response to changing antibiotic selective pressures by studying the long-term in-patient evolution of a broad diversity of β-lactam resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa clones. By using mutational and ultra-deep amplicon sequencing, we analyzed multiple generations of a P. aeruginosa hypermutator strain persisting for more than 26 years of chronic infection in the airways of a cystic fibrosis (CF) patient. We identified the accumulation of multiple alterations targeting the chromosomally encoded class C β-lactamase (blaPDC), providing structural and functional protein changes that resulted in a continuous enhancement of its catalytic efficiency and high level of cephalosporin resistance. This evolution was linked to the persistent treatment with ceftazidime, which we demonstrate selected for variants with robust catalytic activity against this expanded-spectrum cephalosporin. Surprisingly, “a gain of function” of collateral resistance towards ceftolozane, a more recently introduced cephalosporin that was not prescribed to this patient, was also observed and the biochemical basis of this cross-resistance phenomenon was elucidated. This work unveils the diversity of evolutionary trajectories driven by bacteria in the natural CF environmental setting, towards a multidrug resistant phenotype after years of antibiotic treatment against a formidable pathogen.