Scientists have discovered ancienttrapped in ice that could help us understand antibiotic resistance – or make the problem worse.
That’s according to athat was recently published in Frontiers in Microbiology, in which Romanian researchers analysed the profiles of an ancient bacterial strain.
For 5,000 years, the bacteria – called Psychrobacter SC65A.3 – had been hidden under a thick layer of ice, in Scărişoara Cave, northwest Romania.
“These ancient bacteria are essential for science and medicine, but careful handling and safety measures in the lab are essential to mitigate the risk of uncontrolled spread,” said study autho
As antibiotic resistance grows, so does the possibility that current antibiotics may fail to treat infections or even become obsolete in future.
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The problem is often attributed to an overuse of antibiotics, but Purcarea said: “Studying microbes such as Psychrobacter SC65A.3, retrieved from millennia-old cave ice deposits, reveals how antibiotic resistance evolved naturally in the environment, long before modern antibiotics were ever used.”
To retrieve this strain, the scientists drilled a 25-metre ice core that represented a 13,000-year timeline and transported fragments to the lab in sterile bags, while frozen.
Once in the lab, the researchers analysed the DNA of the bacteria in the icy fragments, to study how they managed to survive in such cold conditions and to investigate how it might interact with antibiotics.
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