Antibiotic usage selects for the accumulation and spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. However, resistance can also accumulate in the absence of antibiotic exposure. Antibiotics are often designed to target widely distributed regulatory housekeeping genes. The targeting of such genes enables these antibiotics to be useful against a wider variety of pathogens. This review highlights work suggesting that regulatory housekeeping genes of the type targeted by many antibiotics function as hubs of adaptation to conditions unrelated to antibiotic exposure. As a result of this, some mutations to the regulatory housekeeping gene targets of antibiotics confer both antibiotic resistance and an adaptive effect unrelated to antibiotic exposure. Such antibiotic-independent adaptive effects of resistance mutations may substantially affect the dynamics of antibiotic resistance accumulation and spread.

抗生素的使用选择抗生素抗性细菌的积累和传播。但是，在没有抗生素暴露的情况下，耐药性也会累积。抗生素通常被设计为靶向广泛分布的调控看家基因。此类基因的靶向使这些抗生素可用于抵抗多种病原体。这项审查突出了工作，表明许多抗生素靶向的调控管家基因作为适应与抗生素暴露无关的疾病的枢纽。结果，对抗生素的管家基因靶标的一些突变赋予了抗生素抗性和与抗生素暴露无关的适应性作用。