A bacterial strain discovered frozen in an underground cave is resistant to 10 antibiotics, which could give scientists clues on preventing the rise of antimicrobial resistance.
Bacteria have evolved to adapt to Earth’s most extreme conditions, from scorching heat to temperatures well below zero. Ice caves host a variety of micro-organisms representing a source of genetic diversity that has not yet been studied extensively.
Researchers have carried out antibiotic resistance tests on bacteria found inside a 5,000-year-old layer of ice in the Scarisoara ice cave in Romania.
“The Psychrobacter SC65A.3 bacterial strain isolated from Scarisoara ice cave, despite its ancient origin, shows resistance to multiple modern antibiotics and carries over 100 resistance-related genes,” said Cristina Purcarea, a senior scientist at the Institute of Biology Bucharest. “But it can also inhibit the growth of several major antibiotic-resistant ‘superbugs’ and showed important enzymatic activities with important...