How Bacteria Become Drug-Resistant While Exposed to Antibiotics

A membrane pump found in most bacteria helps E. coli acquire drug resistance from neighboring cells even while they’re exposed to antibiotics, a new study shows.

Written byKatarina Zimmer

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ABOVE: Some bacterial cells produce a drug-resistant protein (labeled in red). Drug-sensitive cells swamped in the antibiotic tetracycline are visible in green.
CHRISTIAN LESTERLIN & SOPHIE NOLIVOS, UNIVERSITY OF LYON

Escherichia coli is capable of synthesizing drug-resistant proteins even in the presence of antibiotics designed to cripple cell growth. That’s the finding by a group of French researchers reporting today (May 23) in Science. They also discovered how the bacteria manage this feat: a well-conserved membrane pump shuttles antibiotics out of the cell—just long enough to buy the cells time to receive DNA from neighbor cells that codes for a drug-resistant protein.

“This is a key discovery,” microbiologist Manuel Varela of Eastern New Mexico University who wasn’t involved in the study says to The Scientist in an email. “This finding will help explain how bacteria manage to spread antimicrobial resistance as they encounter toxic levels of antibiotic.”

The discovery was a ...

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Meet the Author

Katarina Zimmer
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After a year teaching an algorithm to differentiate between the echolocation calls of different bat species, Katarina decided she was simply too greedy to focus on one field of science and wanted to write about all of them. Following an internship with The Scientist in 2017, she’s been happily freelancing for a number of publications, covering everything from climate change to oncology. Katarina is a news correspondent for The Scientist and contributes occasional features to the magazine. Find her on Twitter @katarinazimmer and read her work on her website.
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