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MORE DRUG-RESISTANT MUTATIONS IN BACTERIA FOUND THROUGH NOVEL GENOME SCREENING

  • [아시아뉴스통신] Ian Maclang 기자
  • 송고시간 2019-03-19 17:12
  • 뉴스홈 > 국제
Photo by katisa via 123RF
 

A team of scientists from the Chalmers University of Technology and the University of Gothenburg discovered a number of previously unknown antibiotic-resistant genes by searching large volumes of bacterial DNA collected from humans and various environments from all over the world.


Based on a new computational method using an optimized hidden Markov model, researchers analyzed over 10,000 bacterial genomes and plasmids together with more than five terabases of metagenomics data to identify novel Metallo-β-lactamase genes. A total of 76 novel genes were predicted, forming 59 previously undescribed Metallo-β-lactamase gene families, according to the result of the study.


Several of the 76 newly discovered genes can give bacteria the ability to degrade a widely used antibiotic class for treating multiresistant bacteria called carbapenems. Researchers solved the challenging aspect of identifying a resistance gene which has not been encountered before by developing new computational methods to determine DNA patterns that are associated with resistance to antibiotics.


“Our study shows that there are lots of unknown resistance genes. Knowledge about these genes makes it possible to more effectively find and hopefully tackle new forms of multiresistant bacteria,” said Dr. Erik Kristiansson, principal investigator of the study and professor in biostatistics at the Chalmers University of Technology.



The method used in the study performed efficiently and can search for the specific patterns of novel resistance genes in large volumes of DNA sequence data, according to Fanny Berglund, a PhD student in the research group. However, the novel genes discovered by the researcher are just a tiny piece of the bigger part of unidentified antibiotic resistance genes that could cause major global health problems. The researchers are now aiming to search for genes that provide resistance to other antibiotic forms.