title: Games of life and death: antibiotic resistance and production through the lens of evolutionary game theory.
abstract: In this review, we demonstrate how game theory can be a useful first step in modeling and understanding interactions among bacteria that produce and resist antibiotics. We introduce the basic features of evolutionary game theory and explore model microbial systems that correspond to some classical games. Each game discussed defines a different category of social interaction with different resulting population dynamics (exclusion, coexistence, bistability, cycling). We then explore how the framework can be extended to incorporate some of the complexity of natural microbial communities. Overall, the game theoretical perspective helps to guide our expectations about the evolution of some forms of antibiotic resistance and production because it makes clear the precise nature of social interaction in this context.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology and BEACON Center for the Study of Evolution in Action, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
authors.forename: Peter L
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Conlin
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biosciences, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA.
authors.forename: Josephine R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Chandler
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology and BEACON Center for the Study of Evolution in Action, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA. Electronic address: kerrb@uw.edu.
authors.forename: Benjamin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kerr
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism; D018407:Bacterial Physiological Phenomena; D005075:Biological Evolution; D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial; D005716:Game Theory; D008954:Models, Biological