A paper describing Desai and Miller's work was published this week in the prestigious journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. That paper is titled "Recruitment of Genes and Enzymes Conferring Resistance to the Nonnatural Toxin Bromoacetate."

"The recent rise of antibiotic resistance demonstrates that bacteria are capable of rapidly evolving evasive strategies," they wrote. "It also has exposed our lack of knowledge about the evolutionary processes leading to resistance."

Understanding the mechanisms by which bacteria evade environmental threats has direct relevance for understanding and combating the rise of antibiotic resistance, Desai and Miller added.

The techniques described in the paper will be highly useful for other researchers in the field because it will allow them to predict the resistance to specific antibiotics. Any resistance mechanisms identified could then be inhibited so that the antibiotics will retain their effectiveness.

Source: Florida State University