Drug-resistant bacteria annually sicken 2 million Americans and kill at least 23,000. A driving force behind this growing public health threat is the ability of bacteria to share genes that provide antibiotic resistance.
Bacteria that naturally live in the soil have a vast collection of genes to fight off antibiotics, but they are much less likely to share these genes, a new study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has revealed. The findings suggest that most genes from soil bacteria are not poised to contribute to antibiotic resistance in infectious bacteria.
The researchers hope that what they are learning from soil bacteria will help identify ways to reduce gene sharing among infectious bacteria, slowing the spread of drug-resistant superbugs, said senior author Gautam Dantas, PhD, assistant professor of pathology and immunology.The results appear May 21 in Nature.
“Soil bacteria have strategies for fighting antibiotics that we’re only just starting to learn about,” Dantas said. “We need to make sure the genes that make these strategies possible aren’t shared with infectious bacteria, because they could make the problem of drug-resistant infections much worse.”
Most of the antibiotics used to fight illness today were devised by soil microbes, which employ them as weapons in the competition for resources and survival. Penicillin, the first successful antibiotic, came from the soil fungus Penicillium.