A possible mutation of the bacterium of the black plague could do it able to bring about a pandemic
The bacterium responsible for the “black plague “, what knocked down the world in century XIV, taking to the death more than 75 million people, can have another bullet in its firing chamber.
At present, the bacterium of the plague, the Yersinia pestis, normally can be fought and be cured with a treatment by means of antibiotics, if it is acted against her to the few days of to have begun the symptoms. But investigators of the Medical School Weill Cornell have located a gene that could change to do to and. pestis resistant to many common medecines. The scientists think that and. pestis resistant to antibiotics merits the attention of the public and scientific community because the bacterium could be used like bioterrorismo agent.
Luis Quadri, professor of microbiology and immunology in the Medical School Weill Cornell, and their equipment of investigation located to the gene that, when it is sobreexpressed or in high numbers in the body it allows the bacterium to become amazingly resistant.
The investigators examined colonies of bacterium E. coli that they had implanted fragments of the genome of and. pestis in his interior, and found that some of the bacteria were able to resist the effects of antibiotic manifolds.
The investigators also found that these rare microbes contained stops numbers of a gene of and. pestis denominated robA, a gene that activates the production of microscopic pumps that expel outside the bacterial cell toxins and antibiotics. Whichever major is the number of robA in and. pestis, more cellular pumps exist and is easier it bacterium to eliminate antibiotics.
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