Researchers capture new antibiotic resistance mechanisms with trace amounts of DNA
URBANA, Ill. — Scientists from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have developed a method to isolate genes from amounts of microbial DNA so tiny that it would take 20,000 samples to weigh as much as a single grain of sugar. In a new paper, the researchers discovered previously unknown antibiotic resistance genes in bacterial DNA isolated from human stool and from fish tanks at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium.
“With antibiotic resistance on the rise, it’s more important than ever to understand the full diversity of mechanisms bacteria may ...