Machine learning prediction of resistance to subinhibitory antimicrobial concentrations from Escherichia coli genomes

by Sam Benkwitz-Bedford, Martin Palm, Talip Yasir Demirtas, Ville Mustonen, Anne Farewell, Jonas Warringer, Leopold Parts, Danesh Moradigaravand
Research Article Year: 2021

Extra Information

Msystems, 6(4)

Abstract

Escherichia coli is an important cause of bacterial infections worldwide, with multidrug-resistant strains incurring substantial costs on human lives. Besides therapeutic concentrations of antimicrobials in health care settings, the presence of subinhibitory antimicrobial residues in the environment and in clinics selects for antimicrobial resistance (AMR), but the underlying genetic repertoire is less well understood. Here, we used machine learning to predict the population doubling time and cell growth yield of 1,407 genetically diverse E. coli strains expanding under exposure to three subinhibitory concentrations of six classes of antimicrobials from single-nucleotide genetic variants, accessory gene variation, and the presence of known AMR genes. We predicted cell growth yields in the held-out test data with an average correlation (Spearman’s ρ) of 0.63 (0.36 to 0.81 across concentrations) and cell doubling times with …