Metabolite dependence of antibiotic susceptibility in a gut microbe.

Antibiotics save lives but can have unwanted effects on our gut microbes, thereby contributing to disease. A mechanistic understanding of how such microbes respond to antibiotics is hence critical. Recently in mSphere , Nilson et al. investigated the metabolite dependence of antibiotic susceptibility in Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron , an abundant and important member of our gut microbiota (R. Nilson, S. Penumutchu, F. S. Pagano, and P. Belenky, mSphere 9:e00103-24, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1128/msphere.00103-24). Their uncovered findings suggest the possibility of potentiating antibiotics with metabolites to reduce post-antibiotic "blooming" of B. thetaiotaomicron and the associated development of gut symbiosis.