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Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/932720
News Release 26-Oct-2021
Ancient permafrost bacteria can be resistant to modern antibiotics
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Federal Research Centre «Fundamentals of Biotechnology» of the Russian Academy of Science
The resistance of pathogenic micro-organisms to antibiotics is our responsibility — starting from negligent farmers seeking how to save their crops and animals from the disease at all costs, to all those who are taking antibiotics without a doctor’s advice. As a result of such massive antibiotic “bombardment”, the most powerful bacteria and fungi survive, then transmitting antibiotic resistance genes to their descendants. It is difficult to keep up with this evolution: it may take years from the stage of synthesizing a new drug to putting it on the market.
“It is an interesting question — how can the resistance of micro-organisms to antibiotics be related to another contemporary problem — global warming? The answer is rather simple: the melting of the ice can release ancient micro-organisms that are causing diseases. Perhaps even much more deadly and contagious. Of course, one can hope that they will be sensitive to modern antibiotics, but our research says that it may not be so”, — says Andrey Rakitin, one of the authors of the scientific paper, PhD, Senior Researcher of Laboratory of Molecular Cloning Systems, Research Center of Biotechnology RAS.
It turned out that the bacteria Acinetobacter lwoffii, isolated from thousands or millions of years old permafrost, were resistant to antibiotics. This was discovered when the genomes of five strains extracted from the permafrost of Kolyma lowlands in Yakutia were sequenced. This research was made by biologists from both The Institute of Molecular Genetics of National Research Centre ‘Kurchatov Institute’ and the Research Center of Biotechnology. Acinetobacter lwoffii are widespread in a wide variety of habitats and are usually non-pathogenic, but their close relatives, other species of the genus Acinetobacter, can cause dangerous infectious diseases in humans and animals...
News Release 26-Oct-2021
Ancient permafrost bacteria can be resistant to modern antibiotics
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Federal Research Centre «Fundamentals of Biotechnology» of the Russian Academy of Science
The resistance of pathogenic micro-organisms to antibiotics is our responsibility — starting from negligent farmers seeking how to save their crops and animals from the disease at all costs, to all those who are taking antibiotics without a doctor’s advice. As a result of such massive antibiotic “bombardment”, the most powerful bacteria and fungi survive, then transmitting antibiotic resistance genes to their descendants. It is difficult to keep up with this evolution: it may take years from the stage of synthesizing a new drug to putting it on the market.
“It is an interesting question — how can the resistance of micro-organisms to antibiotics be related to another contemporary problem — global warming? The answer is rather simple: the melting of the ice can release ancient micro-organisms that are causing diseases. Perhaps even much more deadly and contagious. Of course, one can hope that they will be sensitive to modern antibiotics, but our research says that it may not be so”, — says Andrey Rakitin, one of the authors of the scientific paper, PhD, Senior Researcher of Laboratory of Molecular Cloning Systems, Research Center of Biotechnology RAS.
It turned out that the bacteria Acinetobacter lwoffii, isolated from thousands or millions of years old permafrost, were resistant to antibiotics. This was discovered when the genomes of five strains extracted from the permafrost of Kolyma lowlands in Yakutia were sequenced. This research was made by biologists from both The Institute of Molecular Genetics of National Research Centre ‘Kurchatov Institute’ and the Research Center of Biotechnology. Acinetobacter lwoffii are widespread in a wide variety of habitats and are usually non-pathogenic, but their close relatives, other species of the genus Acinetobacter, can cause dangerous infectious diseases in humans and animals...