Principal Investigator Jeff Gore
Bacterial resistance to penicillin and related antibiotics is obtained by expressing a protein that degrades the antibiotic, thus removing a public bad. We are exploring the consequences of this cooperative behavior for the evolution of increased resistance. Tanya has discovered that the cooperative nature of bacterial growth in these antibiotics leads suprising predictions regarding which mutatations are favored. Eugene and Sherry probed the conditions in which this cooperative behavior is susceptible to "cheating."