Bacteria may travel thousands of miles through the air worldwide instead of hitching rides with people and animals, according to Rutgers and other scientists.
Bacteria may travel thousands of miles through the air worldwide instead of hitching rides with people and animals, according to Rutgers and other scientists. Their “air bridge” hypothesis could shed light on how harmful bacteria share antibiotic resistance genes.
“Our research suggests that there must be a planet-wide mechanism that ensures the exchange of bacteria between faraway places,” said senior author Konstantin Severinov, a principal investigator at the Waksman Institute of Microbiology and professor of molecular biology and biochemistry in the School of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers University-New Brunswick.
“Because the bacteria we study live in very hot water – about 160 degrees Fahrenheit – in remote places, it is not feasible to imagine that animals, birds or humans transport them,” Severinov said. “They must be transported by air and this movement must be very extensive so bacteria in isolated places share common characteristics.”
Severinov and other researchers studied the “molecular memories” of bacteria from their encounters with viruses, with the memories stored in bacterial DNA, according to a study in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B.
Read more at Rutgers University
Image: Bacteria were collected from this hot spring in the El Tatio region in northern Chile. (Photo: Yaroslav Ispolatov)
