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here’s a reason bacteria are
one of the most successful
organisms on Earth. They
are startlingly fast at adapting to their
environment. So fast, in fact, that just
five years after the mass production
of penicillin, microbes were already
appearing that could resist it. This
presents drug designers with a huge
problem. But now a team at London’s
Birkbeck and University College
London has uncovered the system
through which bacteria share genetic
material, most notably the genes that
exhibit antibiotic resistance.
The study reveals the action of what
is known as the ‘type IV secretion’
system, which allows bacteria to
move substances across their cell walls
The system is a complex structure of
proteins that moves secretions throughBACTERIA’S
RESISTANCE TRICK
REVEALED
Antibiotics are increasingly under
threat. Now we know how bacteria can develop resistanceDNA streams out of an
E. coli bacterium in this
electron micrograph image