London, July 6 (Inditop.com) Thanks to their weird sex life, disease-causing bacteria are developing resistance to antibiotics, says a new study.
According to William Hanage, study co-author from Imperial College, London (ICL): “Bacteria have very peculiar sex lives. When humans have kids they mix up their DNA with that of their partner, but bacteria can pick up DNA from all sorts of places, even other species.”
“Our research shows that bacteria which undergo sex, with their own and other species are more likely to develop resistance to antibiotics, protecting them from being killed by these drugs,” he added.
Today’s research looks at bacteria called pneumococcus, which causes pneumonia and bacterial meningitis.
Pneumococcal infections cause approximately one million deaths every year globally and the bacteria are becoming resistant to many antibiotics, making treatment increasingly difficult.
Bacteria reproduce asexually but sometimes they can take up DNA from other bacteria or the environment, and incorporate it into their own genome.
This mixing process, called recombination, is what happens in animals during sexual reproduction. It is most common between bacteria of the same species but, unlike animals, bacteria can sometimes undergo recombination with different species of bacteria.
Some combinations of DNA help bacteria survive better. It appears that antibiotic resistant strains of pneumococcus are more likely to mix their DNA in this way, and so are more likely to hit upon the adaptation which helps them resist antibiotic treatment.
Researchers examined DNA from 1,930 different S. pneumoniae strains, as well as three closely related species, said an ICL release.
They were able to find strains with DNA which suggested recombination, or the mixing of DNA with other members of the same species, and other closely related ones.
These results were published in the journal Science.
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