Fluorescence microscope image showing DNA transfer (yellow) through the conjugation pilus from donor bacteria (green) to recipient bacteria (red). Kelly Goldlust – Lesterlin LAB (MMSB, Lyon)
Fluorescence microscope image showing DNA transfer ( yellow ) through the conjugation pilus from donor bacteria ( green ) to recipient bacteria ( red ). Kelly Goldlust - Lesterlin LAB (MMSB, Lyon) - A better understanding of how bacteria acquire resistance to antibiotics is a key research issue in tackling the major public health problem of antibiotic resistance. The main mechanism by which these resistances are disseminated is called "DNA transfer by bacterial conjugation". Until now, this was thought to occur only between bacteria in direct contact with each other. In a new study, researchers from Inserm, CNRS and Université Claude-Bernard - Lyon 1, working in the Microbiologie moléculaire et biochimie structurale laboratory, have shed light on a new mode of resistance transfer between bacteria, demonstrating for the first time, using innovative microscopy techniques, that DNA transfer between physically distant cells is in fact possible. These results, and their many theoretical and clinical implications, are published in the journal PNAS . Antibiotics considerably reduced mortality from infectious diseases during the 20th century, and thus represented a major advance in the field of medicine.
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