Bacterial antibiotic new resistance: mechanism found (Introduction)

by dhw, Saturday, May 25, 2019, 09:37 (2010 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: ...for me the key point is that Tetracycline is an antibiotic that was found originally in nature as a natural defense molecule made by a fungus. Therefore what bacteria can do when presented with tetracycline is a defense mechanism for them that many of them developed at the beginning of evolution, just as they developed horizontal gene transfer. But note the final paragraph: we can analyze every bacterial mechanism that can be attacked and should be able to defeat resistance. Our first approach of finding natural antibiotics in soil has run its course.

So far, bacteria have found means of resisting just about everything that humans and Nature can throw at them. They simply use whatever materials are available to ensure their survival. Isn’t it strange that our highly developed intelligence is still unable to get the better of what some people believe to be unthinking automatons? Maybe they have a different form of intelligence from ours?