Abstract
The research reported herein was conducted by Mindlin, Soina, Petrova and Gorlenko (2008). Soina works in the Soil Science Faculty of Lomonosov Moscow State University while the other three researchers are from the Institute of Molecular Genetics, a faculty in the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. Though the place of conducting the research is not well articulated, it involved the collection of soil sediments from Kolyma lowland which depicted resistance to mercury and containing the resistance strains (mer-operons). The purpose of the article was to isolate bacteria that contain antibiotic-resistant genes and compare them to those of the modern times. The method used involved the collection of permafrost soil sediments of various genesis and ages and extraction of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria with depictions of resistance to aminoglycoside antibiotics, chloramphenicol and tetracycline (Mindlin et al., 2008). The research confirmed that the genes in the tested bacteria comprised of streptomycin-resistant genes with determinants being StrA and StrB. The general conclusion is that these bacteria are similar to those of the modern times where resistance to multiple antibiotics is evidenced.
Introduction
Various studies have been conducted in a bid to determine the resistance of soil bacteria to antibiotics. This has provided evidence that some bacteria are resistant to several kinds of antibiotics. This has led to the conclusion that bacteria found within an environment are habitats for resistant genes. The use of permafrost sediments is considered a better way of identifying the origin of resistant determinants since the bacterial communities found here existed long before the massive utilization of antibiotics as a cure for diseases. While there are few studies through which the revelation of the presence of antibiotic-resistant genes in permafrost sediments has been undertaken, there is no research that has compared between antibiotic resistance in ancient and modern times. This is the direction taken by Mindlin et al. (2008) but the questions that remain unanswered: Is the comparison important? Why should one bother to prove the presence of antibiotic resistance in bacteria, particularly in the soil?
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Methods, Results and Conclusions
The purpose of the research was to isolate bacterial strains of various ages and genesis that depicted resistance to various kinds of antibiotics and, determine their association with systematic group. In case of success in isolating streptomycin-resistant strains, determination of the molecular structure of these strains was a target.
The method used in attaining the above described purpose involved the collection of permafrost sediments from various localities; identification of bacterial strains using the criteria of colony morphology, pigmentation, and sequential classification of the rRNA genes; an analysis of the 16S rRNA nucleotide; use of PCR to identify streptomycin-resistant genes.
The research was experimental in nature as it involved the use of chemicals and isolation of specimens based on their molecular structure.
Kanamycin emerged as a booster for bacterial growth. When antibiotics were offered in high concentrations, only a small portion of bacteria thrived but were characterized with high levels of resistance to the antibiotic in question. The strains isolated at this stage were then divided into two categories comprising of 53 gram positive and 30 gram negative. Five antibiotics were then applied in a bid to identify the specimens that were resistant to more than one antibiotic. Strains that depicted double resistance were 20% higher for both the gram negative and gram positive. Strains that were resistant to three antibiotics simultaneously were only identifiable among gram negative at a frequency of 13%. Out of the 15 strains, collected for the determination of streptomycin resistance, five showed resistance to streptomycin only while the rest were resistant to one or two other antibiotics. Bar-graphs and tables were used in the data interpretation section.
This research is important to science and humanity because it will enable scientists and drugs’ manufacturers in their commitment to the introduction of drugs that can boost the multiplicity of important bacteria while eliminating others that pose a threat to the soil and human endeavors.
Reference
Mindlin, S. Z., Soina, V. S., Petrova, M. A. & Gorlenko, M. (2008). Isolation of antibiotic resistance bacterial strains from eastern Siberia permafrost sediments. Russian Journal of Genetics, 44 (1), 27-34.
