Environment Agency
Details
When natural microbial communities are exposed to antimicrobial substances any strains that can resist the harmful effects can come to dominate the population by simply growing faster than its neighbours. Hence, exposure to antimicrobials in the environment can result in selection for resistance in the microbial community.
The concentration of a substance at which selection for resistance may occur has been studied in antibiotics but there is limited work on antifungals. This project reviews the current understanding of the mechanism for selection for antifungal resistance in fungal species following exposure to antifungals and considers potential methods to determine the lowest concentration of an antifungal that can lead to a selective advantage for resistant organisms.
This work will help raise awareness of the need for methods for the identification of concentrations at which selection for resistance to antifungals may occur and forms the basis for further method development.