
Million-Year-Old 'Hero Bug' Emerges From Cave - happy-go-lucky
http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/12/10/504691357/million-year-old-hero-bug-emerges-from-cave
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vosper
> "It changed our understanding because it means antibiotic resistance didn't
> evolve in the clinic through our use. The resistance is hardwired," she
> says.

But if that was true wouldn't bacteria always have been resistant to these
"natural" antibiotics (the majority of those that we use, according to this
article) and this they never would have been effective in the first place? And
if that's true, how was this built-in resistance suddenly switched on to the
extent that scientists are now talking about a future where bacteria we could
easily treat a few decades ago will be unstoppable? I think either I'm missing
some important details, or this article is.

~~~
Brockenstein
Well for starters you can't use this bacteria and all bacteria
interchangeably.

Secondly bacteria of all sorts live in different eco systems. But all bacteria
doesn't live in every eco system. They're not subject to the same stresses,
attacks, and naturally don't develop immunity to things they're not exposed to
and all bacteria aren't always exposed to everything...

You're kind of going all or nothing for millions of species of bacteria and
that's obviously overly simplistic. You might as well make the argument that
because cheetahs can run 60mph, so shouldn't all vertebrates be capable of
that?

~~~
takingflac
I would think that having a resistance an antibiotic meant that a bacteria was
losing out on a different advantage. This is why resistant bacteria only exist
in places where having the resistance, hospitals etc., is more beneficial than
what it lost to get the resistance.

For example if a cheetah developed a larger body at the cost of speed. It
wouldn't survive as well unless there was a benefit to being larger but
slower.

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bottled_poe
So, you're saying that you opened up this cave and found that the only form of
life was this "hero" bug that seems to kill off all other forms of life. I
think I saw this in a movie once and it didn't end well for us fleshy folk.

~~~
netsec_burn
The bacteria is benign, it says so in the article.

~~~
baldfat
They also said dinosaurs couldn't reproduce in Jurassic Park.

~~~
novia
Jurassic Park was also fiction.

~~~
baldfat
Come on it was funny.

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filoeleven
A bit off topic, but Lechuguilla Cave, where the bacteria was found, is an
incredible sight. Large portions of Planet Earth: Caves was filmed there, and
since access to the cave is extremely restricted it's the only way most of us
will get to see it. The formations they found there are breathtaking.

If memory serves me correctly, it's also where they found what they dubbed
"snotcicles", giant bacteria colonies that had grown so big they were dripping
from the ceiling, and whose growth was fueled by strong acidic compounds. I
don't know if that was this bacteria or something a bit more garden-variety,
but it just goes to show you what kind of wild stuff happens in tiny, sealed-
off ecosystems.

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lojack
Forgive me in my ignorance of how antibacterials work, but wouldn't an equally
plausible explanation be that these bacteria's simply haven't developed
characteristics that modern antibacterial drugs target?

~~~
mrob
That might be true for narrow-spectrum antibiotics, but broad-spectrum
antibiotics target fundamental features that evolved very early so they're
universal in bacteria, eg. beta-lactams such as penicillin target the enzymes
that bacteria use to make their cell walls. In this case resistance occurs by
attacking the antibiotic itself, producing extra enzyme so there's some spare,
or tweaking the enzyme so the antibiotic can't harm it. It would be a much
bigger story if bacteria were found with a completely different method of cell
wall construction.

------
lettergram
Probably just evolved to be resistant to penicillin, either it never evolved
to be susceptible or it evolved to not be susceptible.

In either case, the cave environment had something to do with it. I wouldn't
suspect this is too news worthy.

