eColia gains ability to resist antibiotics... Only variable changed = gravity!

This is pretty neat:

http://ift.tt/2x4qqZ8

Quote:

On Earth, this antibiotic kills bacteria with relative ease, but as this experiment demonstrated, it’s a different story up in space. Instead of destroying the culture, exposure to gentamicin sulfate resulted in a 13-fold increase in bacterial cell numbers and a 73 percent reduction in cell volume size, as compared to a control group treated similarly on Earth.

They are resisting the antibiotic by changing physical attributes. (Which makes it not as odd that the only variable is gravity when you think about it.)

#1 They get smaller. Therefore less surface area for the antibiotic to interact with.

#2 The cell wall / outer membrane becomes thicker. Again, making it harder for the antibiotic to interact.

#3 The bacteria starts to grow more in a clump than a flattened shape. This makes it so the antibiotic can't even get to the inner bacteria.


#3 especially follows logically from there being no gravity.

Quote:

significant decrease in the bacteria’s cell surface area decreases the rate at which molecules can interact with it. This effectively makes the bacteria more impermeable to foreign substances, such as antibiotics. In addition, the cell walls and outer membranes of the bacteria got noticeably thicker, which likely conferred even further protection. The bacteria also grew in clumps, which the researchers say is a possible defensive measure where the shell of the outer cells are used to protect the inner cells from the antibiotics.

And there was another odd change that would help the bacteria infect a host:

Quote:

some E.coli cells produced small capsules, known as membrane vesicles, on the outside of their cell walls, which could in theory help to facilitate the infection process.

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via International Skeptics Forum http://ift.tt/2x2w64l