Scientists map genetic codes of 3,000 dangerous bacteria
First bacteria to be deposited was from a strain of dysentery-causing microbe isolated from soldier in WW1
Scientists seeking new ways to fight drug-resistant superbugs have mapped thegenomes of more than 3,000 bacteria, including samples of a bug taken from AlexanderFleming's nose and a dysentery-causing strain from a World War One soldier.
The DNA of deadly strains of plague, dysentery and cholera were also decoded in what theresearchers said was an effort to better understand some of the world's most dangerous diseasesand develop new ways to fight them.
The samples from Fleming the British scientist credited with discovering the first antibiotic, penicillin,in 1928 were among more than 5,500 bugs at Britain's National Collection of Type Cultures(NCTC) one of the world's largest collections of clinically relevant bacteria.
The first bacteria to be deposited in the NCTC was a strain of dysentery-causing Shigella flexneri thatwas isolated in 1915 from a soldier in the trenches of World War One.
"Knowing very accurately what bacteria looked like before and during the introduction of antibioticsand vaccines, and comparing them to current strains, shows us how they have responded to thesetreatments," said Julian Parkhill of Britain's Wellcome Sanger Institute who co-led the research.
"This in turn helps us develop new antibiotics and vaccines."
Specialists estimate that around 70 per cent of bacteria are already resistant to at least one antibioticthat is commonly used to treat them.
This has made the evolution of "superbugs" that can evade one or multiple drugs one of the biggestthreats facing medicine today.
Among the most serious risks are tuberculosis which infects more than 10.4 million people a yearand killed 1.7 million in 2016 alone and gonorrhoea, a sexually transmitted disease that infects 78million people a year and which the World Health Organization says is becoming almost untreatable.
The genomic maps of the 3,000 strains are to be published on the NCTC's website and made freelyavailable to researchers worldwide to help them in the development of potential newdiagnostic tests, vaccines or treatments.
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