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Researchers reveal how bacteria can adapt to resist treatment by antibiotics

In a joint collaboration, researchers from Denmark and Switzerland have shown that bacteria produce a specific stress molecule, divide more slowly, and thus save energy when they are exposed to antibiotics. The new knowledge is expected to form the basis for development of a new type of antibiotics.

All free-living organisms are under constant pressure to survive. Darwin dubbed this "survival of the fittest" and thus described how the best adapted species would have most offspring and therefore eventually end up propagating itself.

This fundamental principle is particularly prominent in the world of microorganisms, where free-living bacteria live in a constant fight to be the most well adapted and thus those who divide fastest in any given natural habitat. But when bacteria at the same time are exposed to deadly antibiotics, this fight becomes a question of balancing fitness, i.e. the ability to divide fast, with tolerance towards antibiotics. This amazing adaptability of bacteria is a contributing factor to the severity of infectious diseases in humans, including tuberculosis and severe urinary tract infection, for which the disease often resurfaces after treatment has ended.

In a new research paper, just published in the high-impact journal Molecular Cell, researchers from Aarhus University have collaborated with experts from the University of Copenhagen and the technical university ETH Zürich in Switzerland and taken a close look at how bacteria handle this difficult balancing act. The results show that bacteria very quickly reduce their rate of cell division when exposed to antibiotics in order to maintain the highest possible tolerance, but quickly start growing again when the substances are removed and fitness is the most important factor.

[...] It is expected that the new knowledge about the molecular basis for the reaction of bacteria to antibiotics can be used to develop a whole new type of antibiotics that prevent bacteria from saving up energy and thus adapt to the treatment.

Yong Everett Zhang, René Lysdal Bærentsen, Tobias Fuhrer, Uwe Sauer, Kenn Gerdes, Ditlev Egeskov Brodersen. (p)ppGpp Regulates a Bacterial Nucleosidase by an Allosteric Two-Domain Switch. Molecular Cell, 2019; DOI: 10.1016/j.molcel.2019.03.035

Original Submission