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Bacteria Frozen in Ancient Underground Ice Cave Found to be Resistant Against 10 Modern Antibiotics (www.frontiersin.org)
submitted 8 months ago by to c/science@mander.xyz
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[–] 26 points 8 months ago (3 children)

Feed it to RFK Jr.

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  • [–] 6 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    Don't.

    There are two scenarios:

    1. he will spread it to his followers and it will kill millions
    2. the brain worms will just eat the bacteria, rendering this whole test pointless
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  • [–] 4 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    I thought the bear worm found nothing to eat so it died.

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  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

    Bears are notoriously scarce this time of year in places where most bears are. I suppose it's also generally difficult for worms to find things. Ever asked a worm for help finding your keys? They're terrible at that.

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    • [–] 11 points 8 months ago

    Well fuck. Add another contender to the apocalypse bingo, why not.

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    [–] 10 points 8 months ago (7 children)

    It didn't answer the most important question which is, Are they pathogenic?

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  • [–] 18 points 8 months ago (6 children)

    It did.

    Psychrobacter SC65A.3 is a strain of the genus Psychrobacter, which are bacteria adapted to cold environments. Some species can cause infections in humans or animals.

    If it’s not immediately obvious: The intended takeaway is that this particular strain probably isn’t pathogenic itself, but it’s completely plausible that such resistance can spread via HGT to pathogenic species, within the genus or not.

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  • [–] -1 points 8 months ago (5 children)

    That didn't answer whether these particular bacteria are pathogenic.

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  • [–] 14 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (4 children)

    It does to the target audience.

    What you’re missing is that Linnaean taxonomy breaks down when discussing bacteria, and the line between strain/species doesn’t really exist.

    Bacteria swap a lot of genetic material asexually, including across dramatically different species. Pathogenicity can also be dramatically modulated by presence of other species and environmental conditions.

    The idea of a particular strain or species of bacteria being inherently pathogenic in a binary yes/no way is a surprisingly flimsy and unhelpful one.

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  • [–] -1 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    I don't want to know if these bacteria are potentially pathogenic. I want to know if they're pathogenic.

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  • [–] 7 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    How are you distinguishing those ideas?

    Are we talking about “has actually been found infecting human patients”?

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  • [–] 5 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    Yeah, I really didn't think that through. I guess we can't go testing them on random people.

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  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago

    Even if we ignore any ethical concerns, when you’re sampling from an extreme environment, the strains you’re finding will, with >99.9% certainty, have substantially diverged from a biologically identical ancestor that’s spent a fair number of generations infecting hosts.

    So you also get a weird Ship-of-Theseus type question of “are these still really the same bacteria?”. And if you assume they are going to be different strains after adapting to different environments, then you can also safely assume that whatever strain you’re sampling in an extreme environment has a >99.9% probability of being in the potentially-harmful, contextually-harmful, or non-harmful bucket, by virtue of the fact you found it isolated in the wild rather than in living hosts.

    To put it a little more simply: if you’re looking for something with a demonstrated ability to infect people, you’ll probably find that inside or nearby people, not in an icy, remote cave.

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    • [–] 8 points 8 months ago

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    [–] 7 points 8 months ago* (2 children)

    There is a huge number of bacteria that do absolutely nothing to humans.

    Is this one of them?

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  • [–] 12 points 8 months ago

    Maybe we just refreeze it and keep that a mystery. What part of 2026 has anyone thinking we’re going to have any kind of good luck this year? This ain’t the year to shoot your shot.

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    • [–] 7 points 8 months ago

    It comes from a Cave at the northwest of Romania. So it may as well be a bacteria that turns you into a vampire or something...

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    [–] 3 points 8 months ago

    Honey! New pandemic just dropped!!

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    7 comments in c/science@lemmy.ml view that post
    [–] 18 points 8 months ago

    Very shortly,

    “Ancient Bacteria Resistant Against 10 Modern Antibiotics Accidentally Released From Research Facility”

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    [–] 11 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    Well fucking yeah. Leave it be.

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  • [–] [S] 12 points 8 months ago*

    The bacteria will eventually be revived in one way or another, and it's just hanging out around our poles right now. So getting information about the microbe seems like a better idea than waiting for it. Not only is it not anticipated to be a human pathogen (only 5/37 of known Psychrobacter species are pathogenic), but it may also contribute to the reduction of antibiotic resistance thanks to its ~600 novel genes.

    “The researchers found almost 600 genes with unknown functions, suggesting a yet untapped source for discovering novel biological mechanisms. Analysis of the genome also revealed 11 genes that are potentially able to kill or stop the growth of other bacteria, fungi, and viruses.”

    Nevertheless, BSL III & IV labs are remarkably secure. However, pathogenic psychrobacter is an opportunistic pathogen that requires an immunocompromised individual. So sure, it is not entirely risk-free, but the fact it's unlikely to be pathogenic and wouldn't be a significant issue if it were makes it worthwhile to uncover information about this ancient species. Especially if this research unveils new methods for killing other pathogens and having some breathing room regarding antibiotic resistance.

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    • [–] 5 points 8 months ago

    This highlights the importance of studying ancient bacteria to understand the natural evolution of antibiotic resistance and ways in which those bacteria could be used for future medical and biotechnological solutions, the researchers said.

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    [–] 2 points 8 months ago

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    [–] 2 points 8 months ago

    "Escapes"

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