title: Design and Use of a Low Cost, Automated Morbidostat for Adaptive Evolution of Bacteria Under Antibiotic Drug Selection.
abstract: We describe a low cost, configurable morbidostat for characterizing the evolutionary pathway of antibiotic resistance. The morbidostat is a bacterial culture device that continuously monitors bacterial growth and dynamically adjusts the drug concentration to constantly challenge the bacteria as they evolve to acquire drug resistance. The device features a working volume of ~10 ml and is fully automated and equipped with optical density measurement and micro-pumps for medium and drug delivery. To validate the platform, we measured the stepwise acquisition of trimethoprim resistance in Escherichia coli MG 1655, and integrated the device with a multiplexed microfluidic platform to investigate cell morphology and antibiotic susceptibility. The approach can be up-scaled to laboratory studies of antibiotic drug resistance, and is extendible to adaptive evolution for strain improvements in metabolic engineering and other bacterial culture experiments.
authors: Electrical Engineering, National Tsing Hua University.
authors: Po C
authors: PC
authors: Liu
authors: Electrical Engineering, National Tsing Hua University.
authors: Yi T
authors: YT
authors: Lee
authors: Electrical Engineering, National Tsing Hua University.
authors: Chun Y
authors: CY
authors: Wang
authors: Electrical Engineering, National Tsing Hua University; ytyang@ee.nthu.edu.tw.
authors: Ya-Tang
authors: YT
authors: Yang
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D001419:Bacteria / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000235:genetics*; D005075:Biological Evolution; D024881:Drug Resistance, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics*; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents