Bugs' sacrifice 'to beat antibiotics'

Certain "supermutant" bacteria sacrifice themselves to help their colony-mates survive antibiotics, research has found.

To start with, only a few “supermutant” bugs are immune to the drugs.

Faced with an antibiotic onslaught, they manufacture a signalling molecule called indole which causes other bacteria to develop drug-resistant “muscle”.

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But in so doing they weaken themselves and end up having their growth rate stunted.

Study leader Prof James Collins, from Boston University in the US, said: “We weren’t expecting this. Typically, you would expect only the resistant strains to survive, with the susceptible ones dying off in the face of antibiotic stress. We were quite surprised to find the weak strains not only surviving, but thriving.”

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