Tribal’s bacterial flora equipped with antibiotic genes

Marut

Bacteria

Davi Yanomami with Yanomami children,  Brazil
Davi Yanomami with Yanomami children, Brazil

Ignorant of modern science are calling it resistance. It is actually, ability to discriminate self from non-self. Bacteria, our friends, know it very well. And when you live in jungle, you are blessed by diversity and so more wise self-sense. Jungle, river and all nature’s forms instill प्राण in us. Without it, all we can do is to live under fear of unknown germs 🙂.

This is the reason I keep repeating for fellow parents : Spare some time in pleasant seasons (Spring and post monsoon) for jungle visits. Let your growing kids get exposure to diversity abundance.

And don’t be selfish consumer of jungles. Spare your time for the protection of your protectors. (Y) 🙂


Research


Bacterial flora of remote tribespeople carries antibiotic resistance genes

Bacterial flora of remote tribespeople carries antibiotic resistance genes

Scientists have found antibiotic resistance genes in the bacterial flora of a South American tribe that never before had been exposed to antibiotic drugs. The findings suggest that bacteria in the human body have had the ability to resist antibiotics since long before such drugs were ever used to treat disease.

“These people had no exposure to modern antibiotics; their only potential intake of antibiotics could be through the accidental ingestion of soil bacteria that make naturally occurring versions of these drugs,” Pehrsson said. “Yet we were able to identify several genes in bacteria from their fecal and oral samples that deactivate natural, semi-synthetic and synthetic drugs.”

Thousands of years before people began using antibiotics to fight infections, soil bacteria began producing natural antibiotics to kill competitors. Similarly, microbes evolved defenses to protect themselves from the antibiotics their bacterial competitors would make, likely by acquiring resistance genes from the producers themselves through a process known as horizontal gene transfer.

In recent years, the abundance of antibiotics in medicine and agriculture has accelerated this process, stimulating the development and spread of genes that help bacteria survive exposure to antibiotics. Consequently, strains of human disease that are much harder to treat have emerged.

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