Comment on Bacteria Frozen in Ancient Underground Ice Cave Found to be Resistant Against 10 Modern Antibiotics

Quilotoa@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

• dgdft@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  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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  • Quilotoa@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

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

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    • dgdft@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      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 is a weird and surprisingly flimsy one.

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      • Quilotoa@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

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

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