Your browser version may not work well with NCBI's Web applications. More information here...
1: Science. 2008 Apr 4;320(5872):100-3.Click here to read Links
Comment in:
Science. 2008 Apr 4;320(5872):33.

Bacteria subsisting on antibiotics.

Dantas G, Sommer MO, Oluwasegun RD, Church GM.

Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.

Antibiotics are a crucial line of defense against bacterial infections. Nevertheless, several antibiotics are natural products of microorganisms that have as yet poorly appreciated ecological roles in the wider environment. We isolated hundreds of soil bacteria with the capacity to grow on antibiotics as a sole carbon source. Of 18 antibiotics tested, representing eight major classes of natural and synthetic origin, 13 to 17 supported the growth of clonal bacteria from each of 11 diverse soils. Bacteria subsisting on antibiotics are surprisingly phylogenetically diverse, and many are closely related to human pathogens. Furthermore, each antibiotic-consuming isolate was resistant to multiple antibiotics at clinically relevant concentrations. This phenomenon suggests that this unappreciated reservoir of antibiotic-resistance determinants can contribute to the increasing levels of multiple antibiotic resistance in pathogenic bacteria.

PMID: 18388292 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Patient Drug Information

  • Penicillin G Potassium or Sodium Injection (Pfizerpen® )

    Your doctor has ordered penicillin, an antibiotic, to help treat your infection. The drug will be either injected into a large muscle (such as your buttock or hip) or added to an intravenous fluid that will drip through ...

  • Ciprofloxacin (Cipro® , Cipro® XR, Proquin® XR)

    Ciprofloxacin is used to treat or prevent certain infections caused by bacteria. Ciprofloxacin is also used to treat or prevent anthrax (a serious infection that may be spread on purpose as part of a bioterror attack) in...

  • Source: AHFS Consumer Medication Information

Recent Activity